In this article written by Moni Basu, he writes about "Veteran confronts rape, suicide", Where he introduces Veteran Jack Williams and his story of rape, and suicide attempts. He was 18 when he joined the military for Vietnam, and was not able to serve his country due to the injuries of his sexual assault. After 49 years he finally speaks out about the incident and is getting the proper medical treatment he needed so many years ago.
You always hear about the suicide rates within the military and how high those rates have always been. This article tells a more horrific side of why the suicide rates are so high, not only due to the war or post-traumatic symptoms, but also rape and sexual assaults. Now when you think about sexual assaults most people automatically think it has to do with women, in this case a lot of the rape victims are men as well. Most of these incidents are not being reported by the men because of embarrassment, "There's an assumption that rape doesn't happen to men, or they must have been weak and not strong enough to fight off" says Williams. Also Military has this persona of being "tough", and "Strong" so things like this are shrugged off.
This article introduces the stories of not only Jack Williams but of many men and women and how they weren't properly treated for rape, and/or medically diagnosed for their problems. Rape doesn't just harm the individual physically but also mentally and emotionally. A study by a former Airforce psychologist Craig Bryan found that military victims of violent assault or rape were six times more likely to attempt suicide than non-victims.
Many men and women are fighting back now to get people to hear their story by speaking out in documentaries like "The invisible War" and "Justice Denied". Brian Lewis, who was the first male rape survivor to testify before congress, is trying to get congress to pass legislation known as the STOP act that would take reporting, investigation, prosecution, and oversight of sexual assault cases out of chain of command and place it under the jurisdiction of an autonomous oversight committee.
I found this article very interesting, this article also hit close to home being a victim of sexual assault and not finding justice. I find it very frustrating on how military just "patches" up these problems or incidents by discharging or diagnosing military victims with a different problem. There are many links and many different stories on this subject which I found interesting especially with the statistics. I had no idea there were so many victims both being men and women and everyone should check it out.
