This Veteran’s Day, here’s a military personnel that I’d like us all to remember: Ashley Miller, a U.S. Military Specialist stationed in England, whose rape case has been dropped by the military, but refuses to stay silent.
When Army Spc. Ashley Miller found out that the man who allegedly raped her would not be prosecuted in a military court, she said she couldn’t help but relive the May night when, after some drinks at the RAF Menwith Hill club, she was attacked in her on-base dorm.
“I felt like I was being raped all over again,” the 24-year old recently wrote in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes.
A staff judge advocate officer at Menwith Hill, an intelligence-gathering airbase in Yorkshire, England, said Miller’s rape accusation was investigated and later dismissed due to insufficient evidence. [. . .]
Now, she wants to tell her story publicly in hopes of convincing other women to learn from her mistake and report sexual assaults promptly.
“I’m turning my bad experience into something that will help other women,” she said over the phone in early October. “I want women to come forward and not to be afraid. The more you wait, the more you blame yourself.” [. . .]
Miller claims to have suffered post-traumatic stress following the rape, and she has since been transferred to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for care, she said.
She has not given up on her case, and said she has recently retained British attorney Christopher Harrison to pursue the case in civil courts. [. . .]
She also said her Menwith Hill unit denied her convalescent leave after the alleged rape.
“I was told to suck it up and drive on,” she said.
Air Force public affairs officials would not say whether Miller’s request for leave was denied but said that there is no standard procedure for giving time off to a person who alleges rape, according to 501st Combat Support Wing spokeswoman Tech. Sgt. Kristina Barrett.
Even though it’s too late for her, Miller said she’d like to see changes to the Air Force structures that she said have failed her and perhaps other victims.
“This is not just about me, it is about helping other women as well and trying to change the system that has failed so many of us for a supposed no-tolerance system,” she said.
. . .
Sadly, Miller is far from alone. She says that several fellow female soldiers have already come to her to talk about their similar experiences, because she has been so vocal about hers. But we’ve been talking about how rampant rape is against U.S. female soldiers by their male comrades for some time, now. This year, one-third female veterans participating in a nationwide survey said they experienced rape or attempted rape during their service.
The system is very, very far from being “no-tolerance,” going so far as to sometimes legally charge female personnel with responsibility for their own rapes. Rape victims also regularly report that senior officers try to suppress their allegations, or that the superior officers are actually the offenders themselves.
And what has been done to fight the problem of female soldiers being attacked by members of our own military? Well, recently, the Department of Veteran Affairs opened its first treatment center designed specifically to treat female veterans suffering from sexual assault trauma. But while I think its great that the military is taking responsibility to treat sexual assault victims, the fact that such a facility is required also ought to be a big bright warning as to how bad the problem is. Especially since one facility really isn’t going to cut it. They’ve also just made confusing updates to the sexual assault legal code, but everyone seems to be unsure at this point whether the changes will help or hinder victims.
As for prevention? Well, I haven’t heard anything. Of course, treatment of victims is important but we’re not going to get anywhere without a plan to stop assault from happening in the first place. And with all of the negative press, you’d think that the military would make a big deal out of it if they had a plan. News searches don’t seem to turn up anything, either, though I’d love to hear about if someone has news that I’ve missed.
Female military members, like all U.S. military personnel right now, have more than enough to worry about. This is something that shouldn’t have to be on their minds.
{ 9 comments }
rock on! i can only applaud her for turning a really shitty situation into something positive, especially in a world as seemingly anti-woman as the military can be. truly, the kind of person i am talking about when i say you can oppose the war all you want, but don’t know the people who have no choice where they serve. thanks again, cara!
on veteran’s day
The quote you copied and pasted shows how she still feels the rape was her fault. From what I read, I get the impression that she thinks reporting rape immediately will somehow make things better. It does help in regard to justice… well, somewhat. It all depends where she is. In this case, she is in the military. The military is still a patriarchal breeding ground; therefore, help is going to take some time unfortunately.
I wonder what the stats are on reported rapes in the military that go unprosecuted, and how that compares to society-at-large.
Without that information, a single case report is less than compelling. However, if she is the victim of injustice, then I commend her efforts.
Did you read the article I linked to? Here it is again.
of the 3,038 investigations of military sexual assault charges in 2004 and 2005, only 329 have resulted in a court-martial of the perpetrator.”
It looks like there is a higher rate of conviction outside of the military: 16% of reported cases. (and that’s actually higher than I would have guessed)
And April — I actually disagree. I don’t think she’s blaming herself, though she admits that she did for a while. I think that she is saying she regrets not having the information she needed about how important early reporting is, and that perhaps if she had, she would have had a better chance to find justice. Now, this may or may not be true. But I still think that they’re two different feelings.
She wanted to be a soldier, so.. let her be a soldier. Equal opportunity.
Ah. Excuse me, I was unaware that “soldier” meant “free license to rape and be raped.” Sorry folks, that’d be my bad.
I don’t like the language: “Miller claims to have suffered post-traumatic stress following the rape.” It really sounds like she’s the one being put on trial, and so the truth of her statements need to be qualified with words like “claims.”
I remember listening to an NPR segment some months back, when some men who came back complaining of post-traumatic stress disorder were discharged and the treatment denied. Some of the soldiers had their pay docked because they were a weak link and liability to the rest of the unit (we’re gonna cut your pay because you sacrificed your mental wellbeing for our country. Not as worthy as getting shot or hit with an IED, like a real soldier). This was shocking to me, and it makes it even worse to imagine that the Ashley Miller’s of the military face double the threat and double the cold shoulder.
This kind of environment has been around at Menwith Hill a long time. Does anyone know if Dwight Bullard is still the CPT in charge? He was very corrupt, as you can see in this link:
http://menwith.blogspot.com/
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