When I was 20 years old, I went into a Navy recruiting office ready to sign up and serve my country. During every visit to the recruiting office, my 35 year old recruiting officer, who was married with kids, would heavily hit on me and make me extremely uncomfortable. He would call me most nights to see if I wanted to go out drinking with him even though he knew I was under age. Needless to say, I did not end up joining the military. I was deathly afraid most men that would be on my ship would have the same creepy personality as my recruiting officer. It was a rude awakening for me, to say the least.
I do not feel every man in the military is a pervert or a rapist, as I know many brave and great men that serve our country right now. Having said that, what frightened me the most was how the recruiting officer would do this in front of the other recruiters in his office, and they all found it funny even though I was obviously not okay with his actions. How am I, or any other woman, going to trust these type of men with my life?
We all know rape is difficult to talk about, and Americans definitely don't want to think of their brave soldiers being capable of such horrific crimes, but this "ignorance is bliss" approach on the issue must stop.
Fortunately, there are groups fighting the Department of Defense to show the records indicating how many cases of rape and sexual assault there have been in the military. Due to the Freedom of Information Act, the Dept. of Defense should be required to share the records but keep finding ways around it. We must continue to demand this information so that we may find out just how much the military is hiding in regards to this issue. All Americans that serve our country deserve the right to feel safe and protected by our government. If not, what are they fighting for?
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