Soldiers who are victims of sexual assault while serving in the military are the unknown casualties

http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/article.php?id=4101&IssueNum=49

America's secret war

Soldiers who are victims of sexual assault while serving in the military are the unknown casualties of war

Since the war in Iraq began, just about everybody — both for the war or dead-set against it — has taken to calling American soldiers “heroes.” But while many of those currently serving in the so-called War on Terror behave with bravery and honor, some have contributed to a growing list of less-than-heroic misdeeds and outright crimes. According to some female veterans who held a forum last month at Pasadena City College, some of the least-acknowledged crimes are rapes of female soldiers committed by fellow Americans on duty.
US Department of Veterans Affairs records obtained by the Weekly show that more than 20 percent of female veterans who used VA health care services nationwide between October 2001 and September 2005 — that's nearly 44,000 women — reported being victims of sexual assault or harassment, sometimes by fellow service members.

Los Angeles-born Maricela Guzman was attacked and raped while on night watch duty during her Navy boot camp training, she explained before some 150 students at PCC.

“It was so dark I couldn't recognize the person who attacked me,” she recalled of her assailant, still unknown after nearly a decade. Guzman, who nonetheless went on to have a decorated five-year career while stationed in Naples, Italy, did not immediately report the crime. When she initially tried to speak with her supervisor, Guzman was punished for not following military procedure, and when finally given the chance to speak was so distraught that she didn't.

womens issues like this..

I posted a while back 20 percent of the Women in Iraq have been abused. I never served with a women on the front But they saved my life. Any person who abuses a women should get 30 years of lock down

the rest of the * cabal....we can then move forward to fix these things....but I am no fool it will take years to fix this...

I shudder to think of the stories we will hear once this damn thing is over....

problems like this. They should investigate and proscute these offenders to the maximum...allowing it to go on like this suggests that somehow these men are unable to control their impulses, and that DOES indeed insult the troops.