Sexual assault within the ranks of the military is not a new problem.

It is a systemic problem that has necessitated that the military

conduct its own annual reporting on the crisis.

A 2003 Air Force Academy sexual assault scandal prompted the

department of defense to include a provision in the 2004 National

Defense Authorization Act that required investigations and reports of

sexual harassment and assaults within US military academies to be filed.

The personal toll is, nevertheless, devastating.

Military sexual trauma (MST) survivor Susan Avila-Smith is director

of the veteran's advocacy group Women Organizing Women. She has been

serving female and scores of male clients in various stages of recovery

from MST for 15 years and knows of its devastating effects up close.

"People cannot conceive how badly wounded these people are," she told

Al Jazeera, "Of the 3,000 I've worked with, only one is employed.

Combat trauma is bad enough, but with MST it's not the enemy, it's our

guys who are doing it. You're fighting your friends, your peers, people

you've been told have your back. That betrayal, then the betrayal from

the command is, they say, worse than the sexual assault itself."

On December 13, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other

groups filed a federal lawsuit seeking Pentagon records in order to get

the real facts about the incidence of sexual assault in the ranks.

The Pentagon has consistently refused to release records that fully

document the problem and how it is handled. Sexual assaults on women in

the US military have claimed some degree of visibility, but about male

victims there is absolute silence.

Pack Parachute, a non-profit in Seattle, assists veterans who are

sexual assault survivors. Its founder Kira Mountjoy-Pepka, was raped as a

cadet at the Air Force Academy. In July 2003 she was member of a team

of female cadets handpicked by Donald Rumsfeld, at the time the

secretary of defense, to tell their stories of having been sexually

assaulted. The ensuing media coverage and a Pentagon investigation

forced the academy to make the aforementioned major policy changes.

Report reveals alarming statistics

Mountjoy-Pepka often works with male survivors of MST. She stated in a

telephone interview that four per cent of men in the military

experience MST. "Most choose not to talk about it until after their

discharge from the military, largely because the post-traumatic stress

disorder (PTSD) in over 60 percent of MST cases is too overwhelming,"

she informed Al Jazeera.

Last week the Pentagon released its "annual report on sexual

harassment and violence at the military service academies". At its three

academies, the number of reports of sexual assault and harassment has

risen a staggering 64 percent from last year.

The report attributes the huge increase to better reporting of

incidents due to increased training and education about sexual assault

and harassment. Veteran's Administration (VA) statistics show that more

than 50 percent of the veterans who screen positive for MST are men.

According to the US Census Bureau, there are roughly 22 million male veterans compared to less than two million female vets.

In Congressional testimony in the summer of 2008, Lt. Gen. Rochelle,

the army chief of personnel, reported the little known statistic that 12

percent (approximately 260) of the 2,200 reported rapes in the military

in 2007 were reported by military male victims.

Due to their sheer numbers in the military, more men (at a rough estimate one in twenty), have experienced MST than women.

Shamed into silence

Billy Capshaw was 17 when he joined the Army in 1977. After being

trained as a medic he was transferred to Baumholder, Germany. His

roommate, Jeffrey Dahmer, by virtue of his seniority ensured that

Capshaw had no formal assignment, no mail, and no pay. Having completely

isolated the young medic, Dahmer regularly sexually assaulted, raped,

and tortured him.

Dahmer went on to become the infamous serial killer and sex offender

who murdered 17 boys and men before being beaten to death by an inmate

at Columbia Correction Institution in 1994.

Capshaw reflects back, "At that young age I didn't know how to deal

with it. My commander did not believe me. Nobody helped me, even though I

begged and begged and begged."

The debilitating lifelong struggle Capshaw has had to face is common among survivors of military sexual assault.

Later during therapy he needed to go public. Since then he says,

"I've talked to a lot of men, many of them soldiers, who are raped but

who won't go public with their story. The shame alone is overwhelming."

In 1985 Michael Warren enlisted in the navy and for three years

worked as a submarine machinist mate on a nuclear submarine. One day he

awoke to find another soldier performing fellatio on him.

He recollects with horror, "I was paralyzed with fear. I was in

disbelief... shame. When I reported it to the commander he said it was

better for me to deal with it after being discharged. Nobody helped me,

not even the chaplain. The commander at the processing centre wouldn't

look me in the face. When I filled out my claim later they didn't

believe me. It's so frustrating."

Armando Javier was an active duty Marine from 1990 to 1994. He was a Lance Corporal at Camp Lejeune in 1993 when he was raped.

Five Marines jumped Javier and beat him until he was nearly

unconscious, before taking turns raping him. His sexual victimization

narrative reads, "One of them, a corporal, pulled down my shorts and

instructed the others to ‘Get the grease'. Another corporal instructed

someone to bring the stick. They began to insert the stick inside my

anus. The people present during this sadistic and ritual-like ceremony

started to cajole, cheer, and laugh, saying "stick em' - stick-em'."

Extreme shame and trauma compelled him not to disclose the crime to

anyone except a friend in his unit. He wrote in his account, "My

experience left me torn apart physically, mentally, and spiritually. I

was dehumanized and treated with ultimate cruelty, by my perpetrators... I

was embarrassed and ashamed and didn't know what to do. I was young at

that time. And being part of an elite organization that values

brotherhood, integrity and faithfulness made it hard to come forward and

reveal what happened."

The reality of being less equal

Women in America were first allowed into the military during the

Revolutionary War in 1775 and their travails are as old. Drill

instructors indoctrinate new recruits into it at the outset by routinely

referring to them as "girl," "pussy," "bitch," and "dyke."

A Command Sergeant Major told Catherine Jayne West of the Mississippi

National Guard, "There aren't but two places for women - in the kitchen

or in the bedroom. Women have no place in the military."

She was raped by fellow soldier Private First Class Kevin Lemeiux, at

the sprawling Camp Anaconda, north of Baghdad. The defense lawyer in

court merely wanted to know why, as a member of the army, she had not

fought back.

The morning after the rape, an army doctor gave her a thorough

examination. The army's criminal investigation team concluded her story

was true. Moreover, Lemeiux had bragged about the incident to his

buddies and they had turned him in. It seemed like a closed case, but in

court the defense claimed that the fact that West had not fought back

during the rape was what incriminated her. In addition, her commanding

officer and 1st Sergeant declared, in court, that she was a "promiscuous

female."

In contrast, Lemeiux, after the third court hearing of the trial, was

promoted to a Specialist. Meanwhile his lawyer entered a plea of

insanity.

He was later found guilty of kidnapping but not rape, despite his own

admission of the crime. He was given three years for kidnapping, half

of which was knocked off.

The long term affects of MST

Jasmine Black, a human resources specialist in the Army National

Guard from June 2006 to September 2008 was raped by another soldier in

her battalion when she was stationed in Fort Jackson, South Carolina.

She reported it to her Sexual Assault Response Coordinator (SARC) and

the Military Police, but the culprit was not brought to book.

After an early discharge due to MST and treatment at a PTSD

Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program (PRRTP) facility, she was

raped again by a higher-ranking member of the air force in February

2009.

Administrator for a combat engineering instruction unit in Knoxville,

Tennessee, Tracey Harmon has no illusions. "For women in the military,

you are either a bitch, a dyke, or a whore. If you sleep with one person

in your unit you are a whore. If you are a lesbian you are a dyke, and

if you don't sleep with other soldiers you are a bitch."

Maricela Guzman served in the navy from 1998 to 2002 as a computer

technician on the island of Diego Garcia. She was raped while in boot

camp, but fear of consequences kept her from talking about it for the

rest of her time in the military. "I survived by becoming a workaholic

and was much awarded as a soldier for my work ethic."

On witnessing the way it treated the native population in Diego

Garcia, she chose to dissociate from the military. Post discharge, her

life became unmanageable. She underwent a divorce, survived a failed

suicide attempt and became homeless before deciding to move in with her

parents. A chance encounter with a female veteran at a political event

in Los Angeles prompted her to contact the VA for help. Her therapist

there diagnosed her with PTSD from her rape.

The VA denied her claim nevertheless, "Because they said I couldn't

prove it ... since I had not brought it up when it happened and also

because I had not shown any deviant behavior while in the service. I was

outraged and felt compelled to talk about what happened."

While it will go to any length to maintain public silence over the

issue, the military machine has no such qualms within its own corridors.

Guzman discloses, "Through the gossip mill we would hear of women who

had reported being raped. No confidentiality was maintained nor any

protection given to victims. The boys' club culture is strong and the

competition exclusive. That forces many not to report rape, because it

is a blemish and can ruin your career."

The department of defence reported that in fiscal year 2009, there

were 3,230 reports of sexual assault, an increase of 11 percent over the

prior year.

However, as high as the military's own figures are of rape and sexual

assault, victims and advocates Al Jazeera spoke with believe the real

figures are sure to be higher.

Veteran April Fitzsimmons, another victim of sexual assault, knows

what an uphill battle it is for women to take on the military system.

"When victims come forward, they are ostracized and isolated from their

communities. Many of the perpetrators are officers who use their ranks

to coerce women to sleep with them. It's a closely interwoven community,

so they are safe and move fearlessly amongst their victims."

Her advice to women considering joining the US military?

"The crisis is so severe that I'm telling women to simply not join

the military because it's completely unsafe and puts them at risk. Until

something changes at the top, no woman should join the military."