[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14537-14538]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           STOP MILITARY RAPE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Speier) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, today I rise, once again, to talk about the 
epidemic of rape in the military. This is the ninth time that I have 
stood on the floor of this House to speak about the unspeakable. Each 
of these military members have served proudly for their country. Each 
of them has been raped, and each has been revictimized by a system of 
justice that protects perpetrators and punishes victims. I will 
continue to share these stories until something changes. Survivors can 
email me at
[email protected]
if they would like to speak out.
  Today, I want to tell you about Sergeant Rebekah Havrilla. She served 
in the Army from 2004 to 2008. Her job was as an explosive ordnance 
disposal technician. In other words, she was responsible for disposing 
of IEDs before they went off. So she took on one of the toughest jobs 
in the military. Yet during basic training, she heard her commanders 
repeatedly equate being female with being weak or incompetent. They 
used words to describe women that cannot be repeated on this floor.
  Commanders required Sergeant Havrilla and her colleagues to attend 
classes regarding prevention of sexual assault and harassment once a 
year. Commanders made a mockery of these classes. As the instructor 
would describe prohibited conduct, one or more of the soldiers would 
begin engaging in that conduct. One soldier went as far as to strip 
completely naked and get on the table during a break in the middle

[[Page 14538]]

of class. His punishment was to serve as Equal Opportunity 
representative and lead the next sexual assault harassment training. 
``Disgusting'' is too benign a word to describe this conduct.
  Sergeant Havrilla deployed to Afghanistan in 2006. Her supervisor 
sexually harassed her. He began to slap her bottom whenever he passed 
by. He belittled and mocked her. On one occasion, he told her exactly 
what he wanted to do to her in graphic detail. Nothing was done in 
response.
  It was another colleague, one from the canine unit, that raped her. 
He even photographed the rape, and some of the pictures ended up on a 
pornographic Web site. Imagine a system of justice in such shambles 
that an assailant would actually take pictures of the crime and put 
them on the Internet. Sergeant Havrilla reported her rape under the 
military's restricted reporting policy.
  In February of 2009, she reported for 4 weeks of active duty 
training. While there, she ran into her rapist and went into shock. She 
immediately sought the assistance of the military chaplain. The 
chaplain told her that it must have been God's will for her to be raped 
and recommended that she attend church more frequently. God's will? 
This is the support system for victims of rape and sexual assault in 
the military? Sergeant Havrilla now suffers from posttraumatic stress 
disorder and chronic depression.
  In describing her decision to speak out, she said this: ``Leadership 
needs to be held accountable and women need to be able to work without 
the fear of being assaulted by their own colleagues. This is one of the 
hardest things I've ever done, and I want to thank the other women who 
have stepped forward as well. It's never easy to put yourself out 
there.''
  Sergeant Havrilla is right. It's time for leadership to be held 
accountable--leadership in the Pentagon, leadership at the White House, 
and leadership here in Congress.

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