Navy Male Sexual Assaults

Leaders: Make sex assault prevention a priority

By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Dec 1, 2009 9:34:21 EST

Male-on-male sexual assault is increasing in the Navy, according to a Navy Department study, a trend officials called “surprising.”

About 7 percent of the sexual assaults reported in the Navy over the last year were male-on-male, up from 4 percent in 2004, the first year for which data were available. About 1.2 percent of the assaults in the Marine Corps were male-on-male, although officials had no earlier figures with which to compare that.

The findings came from the Navy Department’s first sexual assault survey, conducted online earlier this year, and are laid out in detail in the report now being reviewed by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Navy Undersecretary Bob Work. Officials expect to release the report sometime in December, after Mabus, Work, and the chiefs of the Navy and Marine Corps have read it.

Jill Loftus, who heads the Navy Department’s new office charged with ending sexual assault, talked with Navy Times about some of the findings of the report, but said she couldn’t give many details — including precise statistics — until the report is released publicly.

Loftus said officials aren’t sure whether the increase in male-on-male assaults means there are more gay sailors and Marines or whether it just represented what she called “hazing, drunken frat-boy activity.”

She did say that five years ago, sexual assault response officials had so little data about it they considered male-on-male assaults “a myth.” It’s also possible that this has been a long-standing phenomenon in the Navy and Marine Corps, but were overlooked in what service officials now admit was a long tradition of slipshod collection and analysis of data.

Loftus said that 46 percent of the male victim survey respondents — who, along with all the other respondents, answered questions anonymously online — said they never told anyone about their assaults, not even friends.

Loftus acknowledged a deep, cultural unwillingness for Navy and Marine Corps leaders to treat male sexual assault victims equally with women. For example, she said, although women who report being assaulted are typically sent to gynecologists and professional response coordinators, there are few guidelines for how a unit should help a man who reports he’s been victimized.

In another example, commanders of all-male units told Navy Department officials they didn’t need training on sexual assaults or sexual assault response coordinators because they assume they won’t use them with only men in their units, Loftus said.

About 85,000 sailors and Marines took the sexual assault survey this summer, officials said, roughly half from each service. About 1 in every 5 female respondents said she had been the victim of some kind of sexual assault since joining, and 1 in 15 said she had been raped. Some 40 percent of respondents said they hadn’t reported their attack.

Other findings in the sexual assault report: The overall number of assaults hasn’t increased dramatically since 2004; and the Navy Department must focus on preventing attacks, rather than offering after-the-fact care to victims. The report also stressed that the Navy and Marines must do a better job of integrating the sources of reports about sexual assaults, and maintaining and reporting that data in keeping with the Defense Department’s guidelines.

“Make this a priority issue in your command or unit. Most of you track your latest Class A mishap, [drunken-driving incident], off-duty incident, etc. Sexual assaults warrant, at the minimum, the same level of command attention,” wrote Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert in an Oct. 29 message to commanders.

Planned changes
The report made 30 recommendations, including calling for more sexual assault response coordinators in Navy and Marine units, and that they be service members or government civilians, not contractors. The Navy and Marines must also stress more involvement by local commanders in preventing sexual assaults.


Brian

Brian,

thanks for sharing this.

I am sure it is enlightening to know your note alone but damn....

Just reading this is hard...

Hang in there,

DJ

OK, this is really unbelievable. It can't help but make one wonder whether Ms. Loftus would view it differently if she had been the victim of some drunken frat-boy hazing. I don't even know what to make of the "gay sailors" comment...does she mean gay sailors rape or get raped? We can say with a fair amount of conviction the former is NOT the case in reality.

"oh ya know Jill, that's just getting initiated...come one, buck up young girl, everyone get's that...oh and while we're at it, you couldn't except anything else, you're a woman. "

My sincere apologies to all of my military brothers here who have suffered this life changing experience while serving your country. What a tragedy that you worst battlefield was perhaps with some of those who should have been your biggest support.

What about instead of all this concern about gays in the military, they decided to not allow psychopathic fuck ups in the military? I'm really pissed to be paying that woman's salary.

s

Just for general information, before becoming Director of the Navy Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office; Ms. Loftus was the Deputy Navy Inspector General.

In that role, she was responsible for overseeing people that claimed their commands did not adequately address rapes.

Nice to know people like this are supposed to help MST victims like me and a few others here.
Life sucks.

Brian

Hey Brian,

I didn't know this when I saw the post with the article...not much use to you, I'm sure, but my heart goes out to you!


sono

Rather typical, don't you think? It only serves to confirm to us that even if we did say something when it happened, no one would believe us. Just like what was said above, that even though those men should have had the support of the other soldiers, their greatest battle was the one in the barracks.

I was in the Army for 5 and a half years. I personally was not sexually assaulted while in the Army. I can tell you though that the mentality is not one of showing weaknesss or admitting pain can stop you. You have to remember these are units that are preparing to throw themselves into fields of fire and expect casualties. When training for airborne (parachute) operations, you drop over fields and gather at designated rally points. Once a rally point has 80% of its assigned number, the unit moves out assuming 20% lost in the drop. Those remaining and mobile are to collect the dead and wounded as best they can. Units would often be wiped out entirely in charges. When ships in the Navy are sunk, typically hundreds die. In one training accident at Ft Bragg a month after I left, something like 136 paratroopers where essentially incinerated in an aircraft mishap.

Take the same guys that train to fight and die like this and it is hard to get them to focus on issues like this.

Not saying it is right, but it is what it is.

I served in the early 80's. It was in the barracks which was to be renewal time of our minds, bodies, and spirits that I experienced the unthinkable. I knew at 18 that If I was a woman and I told I would be able to tell but NOT as a man because another man did it.

This scarred me. It did not matter in my heart, mind and body that I was there for another purpose.

Everyone needs to know "NO" means "NO".

There are NO excuses. Training or terrible times THIS IS UNEXCUSEABLE BEHAVIOUR.

DJ