[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16651]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     SEXUAL ASSAULT IN THE MILITARY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Speier) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise again today with a heavy heart to 
talk about sexual assault and rape in the military, an epidemic in this 
country that must be addressed.
  As I've said before, the Department of Defense, by its own 
statistics, has stated that 19,000 servicemembers, women and men, every 
year are raped by fellow soldiers. I will continue to share these 
stories until something changes. Survivors can email me at 
[email protected] if they want to speak out.
  Each of these soldiers was raped by another soldier, and each was 
subjected to a system of justice that protects the perpetrators and 
punishes the victims. The story I will tell today is the story of 
Corporal Sarah Albertson. This gets to the rot at the root of the 
justice system in the military, and that is: a commander, one person, 
has complete and total discretion in deciding how and if sexual assault 
and rape are dealt with.
  Corporal Albertson served in the Marine Corps from 2003 to 2008. On 
August 27, 2006, Corporal Albertson was raped by a fellow marine, a man 
who outranked her. That's right, he outranked her and raped her.
  Right after the rape, Corporal Albertson went to her commander to 
inform him of what had happened. Instead of detaining her alleged 
assailant, calling in criminal investigators, or sending Corporal 
Albertson to the hospital to preserve the evidence that would 
corroborate her story, he told Corporal Albertson that because she had 
consumed some alcohol, if she reported the rape, she would be charged 
with inappropriate barracks conduct. She was then told not to discuss 
her rape with anyone and was also ordered to ``respect'' her rapist and 
follow his orders because he outranked her. It soon became clear to 
Corporal Albertson that others knew about what had happened, and her 
other superiors, acting with the open support of her commander, 
ostracized and harassed her.
  Corporal Albertson sought counseling. The military counselor that 
Corporal Albertson went to, in no uncertain terms, advised her 
commander that she should not be forced to interact with her rapist and 
that Corporal Albertson was suffering from panic attacks due to these 
interactions. Her commander ignored the professional advice and forced 
her to interact with her rapist for another 2 years. And when she had 
panic attacks, she was punished.
  This same commander also refused Corporal Albertson's request to 
change housing. Instead, he forced her to live one floor below her 
rapist for 2 years. The commander also required her to disclose 
medications she had been prescribed to counter the trauma. Now, 
Corporal Albertson never filled those prescriptions; but, nonetheless, 
by having to disclose those prescriptions, she lost her security 
clearance.
  But what happened to her rapist? Not a thing. In fact, I venture to 
say he has been promoted, not just once, probably twice, maybe three 
times. I have become painfully aware that at the rate DOD is working to 
address this issue, the epidemic of military sexual assault will never 
end.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a national travesty. Congress, the 
administration, the Department of Defense, all of us, all of us should 
be ashamed of what is going on in the military.

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