Wednesday, February 23, 2011


Rape victims in military doubly abused, lawsuit alleges

Officers punishing plaintiffs, group argues in lawsuit  02:54 AM By Kimberly Hefling ASSOCIATED PRESS
CLIFF OWEN | ASSOCIATED PRESS Veterans Kori Cioca, 25, of Wilmington, Ohio, left, and Panayiota Bertzikis, 29, of Somerville, Mass., both say they were assaulted and raped while serving in the Coast Guard.
WASHINGTON - A group of U.S. veterans who say they were raped and abused by their comrades want to force the Pentagon to change how it handles such cases.
More than a dozen women and two men who are current or former service members said servicemen get away with rape and other sexual abuse, and victims too often are ordered to continue to serve alongside those who they say attacked them.
In a federal class-action lawsuit filed yesterday that names Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld, they say they want an objective third party to handle such complaints because individual commanders have too much say in how allegations are handled.
The accused include an Army criminal investigator and an Army National Guard commander. The abuse alleged ranges from obscene verbal abuse to gang rape.
In one incident, an Army reservist said two male colleagues raped her in Iraq and videotaped the attack. She complained to authorities after the men circulated the video to colleagues.
She said charges weren’t filed because the commander determined that she “did not act like a rape victim” and “did not struggle enough” and because authorities said they didn’t want to delay the return of the accused to the United States.
“The problem of rape in the military is not only service members getting raped, but it’s the entire way that the military as a whole is dealing with it,” said Panayiota Bertzikis, one of the plaintiffs, who said she was raped in 2006. “From survivors having to be involuntarily discharged from service, the constant verbal abuse, once a survivor does come forward, your entire unit is known to turn their back on you. The entire culture needs to be changed.”
Although the Associated Press usually does not identify sexual-assault victims, the suit’s plaintiffs have publicly discussed their cases.
Bertzikis, 29, of Somerville, Mass., now is executive director of the Military Rape Crisis Center. She said she was raped by a Coast Guard shipmate while hiking with him in Vermont. Bertzikis said she complained to her commanding officer, but authorities did not take steps to investigate the matter. Instead, she said, they made her live on the same floor as her attacker and let others call her a liar and whore.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said in a statement that sexual assault is a wider societal problem and Gates has worked to ensure that the military is doing all it can to prevent and respond to it.
The military already was planning in April to roll out a hot line that victims can call, said Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith. It has another initiative that encourages service members to help those who are assaulted. In 2005, the military created an office with the aim of preventing sexual assault.
Sarah Albertson, a former Marine corporal and one of the plaintiffs, said one of the hurdles in getting improvements in the system is that commanders do not want marks on their record such as a rape in their unit.

In many of the cases, no charges were filed. In others, those accused faced lesser charges and were allowed to remain in the military, the lawsuit says.
Kori Cioca, 25, of Wilmington, Ohio, described being hit in the face by a superior in 2005 and being raped by the same man soon afterward while serving in the Coast Guard in Bay City, Mich.
Even though the man admitted having sex with her, Cioca said in the lawsuit, she was told that if she went ahead with reporting the sex as a rape, she would be court-martialed for lying.
She said the man pleaded guilty only to hitting her, and his punishment was a minor loss of pay and confinement to the base for 30 days.
She said she was discharged from the military for a “history of inappropriate relationships.”
 - The Columbus Dispatch.




Tips for Resolving Problems with the Military When You Have a Loved One in the Military

As you may already know if you complain to someone higher up in the military your loved one may suffer the repercussions of your complaint. If there is an officer that you trust you can tell them, but to be honest if it’s about something major I don’t suggest going to someone in the military.

Your best option is contacting a senator. Unfortunately it may take a while to get a response. Some people suggest making an appointment with a senator. Make sure you clearly state your situation in your letter or in your notes for your appointment. Bring or send copies of any proof that you have concerning your situation.
I suggest keeping all documents from the military that your loved one receives and know how you can receive copies of documents you may need i.e. hospital records, documentation of on going illnesses, etc. Keep records of your complaints and dates on which incidents happened.

Remain composed whenever you are speaking to anyone who could influence the outcome of the situation. Getting information from or about the military can be very frustrating. Especially the things they don’t want you to hear about. Their websites aren’t updated often and some of the numbers they list are not current. The best military information site I’ve been is www.militaryonesource.com, though I have found no articles that cover this sort of thing.

To be continued.

A List of Military Confinement Facilities

US Disciplinary Barracks Ft Leavenworth KS
(The only Maximum Security Military Prison)

The following are all Medium Security:

Air Force:

AF Regional Confinement Facility, Edwards AFB, CA
AF Regional Confinement Facility, Kirtland AFB, NM
AF Regional Confinement Facility, Lackland AFB, TX

Army:

Army Regional Confinement Facility, Ft. Carson, CO
Army Regional Confinement Facility, Ft. Lewis, WA
Army Regional Confinement Facility Europe, Germany or Mannheim
Army Regional Confinement Facility, Ft. Knox, KY
Army Regional Confinement Facility, Ft. Sill, OK

Navy/Marine Corps:

U.S. Navy Consolidated Confinement Facility, Charleston, SC
U.S. Navy Consolidated Confinement Facility, Miramar, CA

Waterfront Brigs/CCUs (Level I)

Brig/CCU Naval Air Station Jacksonville
U.S. Navy Brig Pearl Harbor, HI
U.S. Navy Brig Puget Sound, WA

Pre-Trial Confinement Facilities (PCFs)

PCF, Great Lakes, IL
PCF, Submarine Base New London, CN
PCF/CCU, Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka
PCF, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

Detention Facilites

Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, PR
Naval Air Station Keflavik, Iceland
Submarine Base Kings Bay, GA
Naval Station San Diego, CA
Naval Station Anacostia, DC
Naval Air Station North Island, CA
Naval Air Station Lemoore, CA
Naval Air Station Meridian, MS
Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, TX
Commander Fleet Activities Sasebo, Japan
Commander Naval Activities Marianas Guam
Naval Support Activity Naples
Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia

Afloat Brigs

USS ENTERPRISE (CVN 65)
USS JOHN F. KENNEDY (CV 67)
USS NIMITZ (CVN 68)
USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69)
USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN 71)
USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN 73)
USS HARRY S. TRUMAN (CVN 75)
USS KITTY HAWK (CV 63)
USS CONSTELLATION (CV 64)
USS CARL VINSON (CVN 70)
USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN 72)
USS JOHN C. STENNIS (CVN 74)
USS WASP (LHD 1)
USS KEARSARGE (LHD 3)
USS BATAAN (LHD 5)
USS ESSEX (LHD 2)
USS BOXER (LHD 4)
USS BON HOMME RICHARD (LHD 6)
USS NASSAU (LHA 4)
USS TARAWA (LHA 1)
USS PELELIU (LHA 5)
USS SIMON LAKE (AS 33) (see Note)
USS EMERY S. LAND (AS 39)

USMC

U.S. Marine Corps Brig, Camp Pendleton, CA
U.S. Marine Corps Brig, Camp Hanson, Okinawa
U.S. Marine Corps Brig, Quantico
U.S. Marine Corps Brig, Camp Lejeune, NC
This is definitely not a complete list as I know of a few that are not listed and there are probably many that are kept secret. For a good reason? Who knows. If there is anyone good at keeping secrets it’s the US Military.

Byline: MATTHEW DOLAN THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
NORFOLK --

Yaser Esam Hamdi slept here.
But little else was known about the military brig at Norfolk Naval Station , where Hamdi, the American-born "enemy combatant" captured in Afghanistan, spent 15 months.
For almost two years, the Navy refused to allow access to the brig or answer questions about Hamdi's confinement in Norfolk, which began in April 2002. Details about his cell, his security, his treatment and his welfare were considered classified. Even his lawyer was barred from the Norfolk facility.

On July 30, 2003 , the Pentagon moved Hamdi, 23 , to a military jail in Charleston, S.C.
Last week , the veil in Norfolk was lifted - partially.
The Navy agreed to allow a reporter to see the 13-acre brig compound on Thursday and interview the commanding officer and his staff. Officials said it was the first time a journalist has been allowed inside. Photographs were prohibited , prisoner interviews were off limits and questions about Hamdi's stay were not allowed.
But Cmdr. William R. Paulette , who took command three days before Hamdi's arrival and leaves for a new assignment next month, said, "People just don't come here and fall off the face of the earth."
During a three-hour visit to the brig, it appears Hamdi inhabited a place much like older civilian jails.
Its red-brick facade matches many …
I am unable to see the rest of this article unless I pay and I can't afford to do that. I'm trying to bring together some information on military prisons because information on them is sparse and anyone in the military could easily face imprisonment.

Cleaning, Preparing to Move, and Money Problems

I'm a really messy person. I try to clean a little bit everyday because cleaning everything all at once overwhelms me (amongst many other things). I've found that I'm really bad at getting the trash to the trash can and that I accumulate things I need to throw away at a breakneck pace.

I'm worried about what will happen when my husband comes back home. He is really messy as well. I've not been able to motivate him to clean either. So him being home will prove difficult. Being in a bigger place will help tremendously.

Which brings me to the moving part. When my husband is released he will have approximately 3 days to move down to his new base. So I have to have everything ready to move before he is released. We won't be able to get everything there in his car so his parents will take the rest to us later.

I still have not been informed when he will be released. So I've been doing my best to do what I can without knowing an exact date. One of the joys of being an army wife.

Hopefully the whole military knows we're married so we can start getting housing and food pay as I've been living without it. Even when they were giving us approximately 300$ a month. Plus I don't want him to have to stay in the barracks while I stay in a hotel, because he'll be mad, and we can't afford more than a one night stay in a hotel.

There has been confusion about us being married because his old battalion "lost" our wedding certificate. We haven't been getting food and housing money for almost 6 months because of this. We are supposed to get back pay, but I wouldn't be surprised if they decide not to because "it's our fault".

The really strange thing is that I have a military I.D. and I am insured under tricare. So obviously there has to be record of us getting married floating around somewhere.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but it sure makes the rest of you lonely.
-Charles M. Schulz
You gotta look at me and you gotta say Hey Buddy, why are you so mad? And I’ll tell ya.