ourteen current and former members of the U.S. military charged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that the Pentagon turned a blind eye when they reported being sexually harassed, assaulted and raped by fellow service members while on active duty.
Interviews by NBC News with some of the plaintiffs in the case reveal disturbing and previously unreported allegations of sexual abuse in the military, including some in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition, one of the plaintiffs, identified as a naval aviator, charges in the lawsuit that she was drugged and then gang raped by two of her colleagues while serving at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma just two months ago.
Mary Gallagher, a former sergeant in the Air National Guard, says that within weeks of being deployed to an air base outside of Baghdad in 2009 she was brutally assaulted by a fellow sergeant who burst into the ladies room, pushed her up against the wall, pulled her pants and underwear down and ground his genitals against her, talking the whole time how much he was enjoying it.
"I thought he was going to kill me that night," Gallagher told NBC in an interview. "I felt completely isolated and alone and really scared. Here I was, in the middle of a foreign country in the middle of a war."
When she reported the attack, she says her commanders only response was to reassign her assailant and tell her "this stuff happens."
Did Pentagon turn blind eye to rape victims? - U.S. news - Life - Military - msnbc.com
read the entire article...is this really how one reacts to rape..telling a woman to respect the man's rank?
Interviews by NBC News with some of the plaintiffs in the case reveal disturbing and previously unreported allegations of sexual abuse in the military, including some in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition, one of the plaintiffs, identified as a naval aviator, charges in the lawsuit that she was drugged and then gang raped by two of her colleagues while serving at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma just two months ago.
Mary Gallagher, a former sergeant in the Air National Guard, says that within weeks of being deployed to an air base outside of Baghdad in 2009 she was brutally assaulted by a fellow sergeant who burst into the ladies room, pushed her up against the wall, pulled her pants and underwear down and ground his genitals against her, talking the whole time how much he was enjoying it.
"I thought he was going to kill me that night," Gallagher told NBC in an interview. "I felt completely isolated and alone and really scared. Here I was, in the middle of a foreign country in the middle of a war."
When she reported the attack, she says her commanders only response was to reassign her assailant and tell her "this stuff happens."
Did Pentagon turn blind eye to rape victims? - U.S. news - Life - Military - msnbc.com
read the entire article...is this really how one reacts to rape..telling a woman to respect the man's rank?