Letters to the Editor, Stars and Stripes
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| ===Victim of ‘good-ol’-boy system’=== | ===Victim of ‘good-ol’-boy system’=== | ||
| - | {September 28, 2006]]I just read “Accused deserter claims harassment,” (article, The Washington Post, Sept. 21 European edition; “‘I didn’t want it to happen to me again,’” Mideast edition), a story about Spc. Suzanne Swift, who said she suffered sexual harassment and abuse at the hands of her noncommissioned officers while deployed to Iraq. | + | [[September 28, 2006]] I just read “Accused deserter claims harassment,” (article, The Washington Post, Sept. 21 European edition; “‘I didn’t want it to happen to me again,’” Mideast edition), a story about Spc. Suzanne Swift, who said she suffered sexual harassment and abuse at the hands of her noncommissioned officers while deployed to Iraq. |
| To me, this story hammers home a major problem in the Army. Many leaders are complaining that new soldiers have no discipline; if that is true, neither do the leaders. | To me, this story hammers home a major problem in the Army. Many leaders are complaining that new soldiers have no discipline; if that is true, neither do the leaders. | ||
Revision as of 02:05, 28 September 2006
Stars and Stripes is a daily newspaper published for the U.S. military, DoD civilians, contractors, and their families. Unique among the many military publications, Stars and Stripes operates as a First Amendment newspaper, free of control and censorship. We have published continuously in Europe since 1942, where readers currently number around 80,000. We serve about 60,000 readers in the Pacific, where we have published a daily paper since 1945.*
Stars and Stripes maintains news bureaus in Europe, Pacific and the Middle East to provide first-hand reporting on events in those theaters. In addition to news and sports, our daily paper contains all the elements of the hometown paper our service members left behind, from "Dear Abby" to coupons, comics and crossword puzzles. In all, we publish five editions: Mideast, Europe, Japan, Korea and Okinawa.
Victim of ‘good-ol’-boy system’
September 28, 2006 I just read “Accused deserter claims harassment,” (article, The Washington Post, Sept. 21 European edition; “‘I didn’t want it to happen to me again,’” Mideast edition), a story about Spc. Suzanne Swift, who said she suffered sexual harassment and abuse at the hands of her noncommissioned officers while deployed to Iraq.
To me, this story hammers home a major problem in the Army. Many leaders are complaining that new soldiers have no discipline; if that is true, neither do the leaders.
Here we have instances of an NCO constantly asking the young specialist for sex, which she constantly refused until he showed up drunk and accosted her in the shower in the middle of the night.
Then she was browbeaten into a sexual relationship with another NCO. When she tried to report it, she was either called a liar or the offending NCO was sent to another unit — on to fresh hunting ground, I guess.
These NCOs seem to be able to get away with murder. That they are all in a military police unit is not lost on me either. She ran away because she was facing a second deployment with these men; with supervisors like them, who needs an enemy.
I know desertion is a crime, and running away from your problems is not the answer. But she was getting no relief from her chain of command or NCO support channel. The NCO “good-ol’-boy system” is even stronger than the officers’ “gray wall of silence.” There is a breakdown in the moral fiber in those leaders.
I have been in enough units to know that, if you have enough rank, there is no retribution.
Sgt. Jackson Eggers Kandahar, Afghanistan
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=40389
