Male-on-male rape in the military
Newsweek has published an article entitled The Military’s Secret Shame about epidemic-levels of male-on-male rape in the military. Now, I know the military hasn’t changed that much in the nearly two decades since I retired that it’s as common as Newsweek makes it sound;
In the staunchly traditional military culture, it’s an ugly secret, kept hidden by layers of personal shame and official denial. Last year nearly 50,000 male veterans screened positive for “military sexual trauma” at the Department of Veterans Affairs, up from just over 30,000 in 2003.
I don’t doubt that it happens occasionally – we get soldiers from the general society, not from a farm somewhere where they train from birth.
It wasn’t until 1992 that the Defense Department even acknowledged such incidents as an offense, and initially only female victims were recognized. But last year more than 110 men made confidential reports of sexual assault by other men, nearly three times as many as in 2007. The real number of victims is surely much higher. Even among civilians, sexual assault is a vastly underreported crime. In the military the silence is nearly complete. By the Pentagon’s own estimate, figures for assaults on women likely represent less than 20 percent of actual incidents. Another study released in March found that just one in 15 men in the Air Force would report being sexually assaulted, compared with one in five women.
What? Rape wasn’t illegal until 1992? Bullshit. Who do they think they’re talking to? And what are they calling “sexual assault”? Getting kneed in the ‘nads? Or the rapes that they breathlessly recount in the article, the three i read were totally implausible – there would have been ample evidence of the assault which should have triggered an investigation. A drill sergeant who raped a trainee? Really? Drill sergeants get investigated for every word they say – no one would have investigated a rape charge? One guy who was raped with a soda bottle – no physical evidence there, huh?
Of course, Newsweek says that the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell should improve reports of these crimes.
In my two decades of military service, mostly in the Infantry, the biggest exclusive man club in the Army, I never heard of one incident of same sex rape. Like I said, it probably happens, but it’s impossible that it’s as rampant as Newsweek claims. Of course, hiding behind the lack of victim reports make the story less believable.
Category: Media, Military issues
#47
I have not heard of substantiated male-on-male sexual assault. I did deal with allegations of homosexual harassment against one of my senior NCOs. Turns out the POS made the allegations in order to claim whistleblower status (which sounds really funny now that I read that.. ‘whistleblower’) in order to prevent me from moving forward with UCMJ for his pissing hot. The POS deserted after being confronted with lack of evidence. It still ended the NCO’s career though.
It is nasty how this male on male rape happens, thank God I didnt get my “bore punched” while in the Army! No one deserves to be raped it is disgusting and it steals a person’s innocence.
I don’t believe it’s rampant, either. And I *do* believe when it happens it *is* about power and not who is gay or straight.
Rape is about power and domination, period. I *know*. He was a gay man, not comfortable with it and thus had to prove himself, I happened to be the target.
There are women who do the same thing. A 35 yo chick preying on a 17 year old in AIT. And it was about power, domination. The theme is always the same. Never about what they do, only about the power. Period.
I have remained active in all things military for 25 years. I never heard a single rumor about same sex rape. Harrassment, yes. Same sex rape? No.
The “straight guys” who like male on male contact, who have hit on other guys for whatever reason are not speaking up here. Its the small minded small minority of world black and white viewers who think sexually is a one or the other phenominon. I will tell you all that a guy if he wants can have sex with the majority of straight living military men given the privacy. Wake the hell up and quit sitting on your puritanical asses. Take your blinders off and realize that homosexuality is as much a part of human sexuality as heterosexuality. Stop the labeling because labels dont change but sexual behavior for any indiviual can change depending on enviromental atmosphere/circumstance and for a man whether his cock is hard. As far as gays in the military I would think having someone who likes to suck dick in the bushes is the best morale booster available. So sick of folks talking about something which has been a part of the human experience since before christ was a boy. Hell Alexander the Greats father was murdered by a male lover.Why because the commander shared him with the soldiers in the army against the young boys will. All of I have to say is it is not that complicated, guys are always horny, guys get off and if it happens to be with one another well it is what it is. All this discussion about guys not having sex with other guys in a military setting. If you were ever in the military and were not aware of how much it goes on you must be an idiot.
@ 54 (banditlove) It sounds like you need a dick to suck. Have at it. Just not here.
I’d like to ask all of you reading and commenting to do two things. 1) Re-read all of the comments above, noticing what people (and not just any “people”, but mostly veterans or currently serving) are saying about men who experience or report MST or rape. 2) Now imagine you are a male in the military and have just been raped. Are you going to report to anyone? Even if you won’t write it here, I’m guessing that quite a few of you just responded “Hell No” in your mind… or something very similar. One of the hardest obstacles to overcome with male MST is societal attitudes toward males who have been raped, particularly when they are raped by other males. These influence the thoughts men who experience MST have: Men can’t be raped; No one will believe me; A real man would have been able to stop them; I shouldn’t have let it happen; People will think I’m gay; my buddies won’t want me around now; my wife will leave me if I tell her. Heck, just look back at the comment string again, or even just J’s comment at #23 where previous comments are summarized. I think Newsweek is wrong. The repeal of DADT isn’t going to change the reporting rates MST or the occurrence rate. Changes in societal attitudes may impact reporting and treatment rates, but there is a long way to go for men who experience MST. It’s unfortunate that it sounds like many of you won’t believe male MST is possible until someone you know personally is assaulted and tells you. Given the attitudes in many of the comments, I don’t think most of you will hear about it even if it does happen to someone you know. Scott (in #9) is right, the VA’s definition of MST does include repeated threatening sexual harassment (See here: http://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/msthome.asp). Also, the VA statistics only indicate whether or not a person screened positive for any form of MST, not whether or not sexual assault was involved. My experience has been that men who screen positive don’t screen positive… Read more »
Wow, amazing to hear the plethora of opinions out there. Pretty cool really. Jacobite, loved your points on how the DADT doesn’t really affect this whole issue. This whole issue of rape has absolutely nothing to do with heterosexual or homosexuality… I am a combat vet and actually saw a lot of crazy things happen. I’m not talking cute slaps on the butt or even teabagging. I’m definately not talking harrassment but assault – forcebly performing or attempting to perform physical sexual violence on another – or sometimes lots of others. Who the heck really cares about the jokes except that they confure the heck out of the privates… The vasoline joke is actually funny – unless you are the guy that really does wake up like that and then kills himself 10 years later. Those of you who said they went through basic or war and didn’t see anything?? WTF?? Seriousely? Did you just hang out in the tents and play gameboy? This whole issue is a power and control thing and the fact of the matter is – some of these crazy assholes make it through bootcamp or basic and no one knows they plot and scheme for their next victims… Most offenders are highly intelligent preditors – that means they are REALLY good at hiding in the weeds (whether politically or figuratively). I really don’t think that any of the branches of military have MORE preditors, tho, than the rest of society. I think that the media puts the military under a microscope – they should probably look at the entire world society really, if they want to remove this stuff from happening. Newsweek is wrong with combining the DADT with SA – that’s just plain stupid. Rape is a power thing, not a hetero or homosexual thing.
No, I would not report the rape until I turned tne bull into a steer. Joe
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