Active Duty

Although Pack Parachute Charity does not serve active duty personnel, we hope the information below is useful, and we encourage you to contact VetWow (an advocacy organization for people who have been sexually assaulted in the military) if you have any questions. 

If you have just been assaulted

If you are active duty military and have just suffered sexual assault or rape, please immediately:

• Get off base to a safe place and tell a trusted friend who is not a member of the military. Agree upon a code word to use on the phone in case something goes really wrong and you can’t speak about it.
• If it has been less than 72 hours since the assault, have a civilian rape kit done. Even though the first thing you may want to do is shower, do not clean yourself until after the kit and exam are administered.
• Report the assault to the civilian authorities in a place you are comfortable, such as Planned Parenthood, RAINN or a local hospital. This does not mean you are taking any formal action, just registering that the assault took place so if later you need an accurate and factual record of what happened they will have it.

The most important thing to do for your own professional and personal safety is create a paper trail. When you return to base have your trusted friend or family member help you:

• Make two copies of all paperwork. Send one copy to your non-military, off-base friend, and do not keep your copy in the barracks.
  
• Keep a diary or private online journal (“blog”) that your trusted friend has access to and can download and print as a hard copy to keep in a safe place off base. Document everything, including any harassment, with the date and time.
  
• Always have a trusted, civilian witness at any meetings, doctors’ visits, etc. If your close friend or family member is not local, you can ask a counselor or advocate from Planned Parenthood or the civilian hospital to come with you.
  

Collecting and preserving your own evidence is vital for your own safety and in case you ever want to file a claim for compensation with Veterans Affairs. (You may not feel as if you ever want to file a claim, but this makes it easier in the future if you ever change your mind.) As you are documenting, consider some of your options:

Leave the service

Often MST advocates suggest getting an administrative separation as quickly as possible. MST advocates do not recommend any other types of discharge (including medical) as these are time-consuming and easily delayed. The number one priority is your safety, and you may not be safe while you are still under military jurisdiction. This will be the quickest way to get treatment for trauma plus you can apply to receive assistance from the VA.

Stay in service without reporting

You can stay in the military and still maximize your own safety and mental health with some of these options:

• Transfer to another unit or base. You can expedite this by informing your command of the assault. Be aware that commanders have the right to deny your request. 
• Transfer to a facility that specializes in MST, then return to your unit
  
• Change your MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) / job

Report and/or prosecute

The military has two options for reporting. Their policy says an individual can make a(n):

• Restricted report: This method officially allows you to receive confidential medical treatment and counseling without beginning an investigation. You will receive partial anonymity; your commander will know someone has been sexually assaulted but they won’t know who. Make your report to a Sexual Assault Coordinator (SARC), Victim Advocate (VA), chaplain or military healthcare provider.
  
• Unrestricted report: If you desire to prosecute the offender, you have to make an unrestricted report of the assault through normal military channels such as to your chain of command or the military law enforcement.
  

WE DO NOT right now recommend trying to work within the military to include trying either of these methods. Though the above summarizes official military policy, in practice when it comes to MST the military procedure is normally and, we allege, unlawfully quite different. MST advocates have seen in too many cases that the policy of confidentiality in restricted reporting is not enforced, that the SARCs are ineffectual, and that the most serious trauma in MST often comes not from the sexual assault but from persecution from the command when it is known someone has been assaulted.

Make an anonymous report

If you feel comfortable, make a report of the assault to the military’s sexual assault hotline. You can make an anonymous report, or get your trusted friend to do this for you. This is just to add your number to the military’s sexual assault statistics. It is a good way to help the problem of MST without the potential for suffering any retaliation.

Please contact VetWow at any time if you are active duty and have just suffered sexual assault. Active duty cases are their number one priority, and your safety is very important to all of us.

VetWow also has a private, invitation-only discussion board for individuals with MST and includes groups for men, lesbians, friends and family, and others. Please go here to request an invite, and read about what some of the other people with MST have to say. You don’t have to comment if you don’t want to; you don’t even have to give your real name. Nobody will know it’s you. But you will see people talking about things you thought only you did, or thinking things only you thought. Then, when you’re ready, you can join the conversation and maybe make a few friends. We know that you don’t feel as if you can trust anyone, and you don’t feel as if you want any help. We know you wish it had just never happened, and we all respect whatever it is you choose to do.

If you were assaulted several weeks, months or years ago

You can do all the things we suggest above for people who were just assaulted, except get a civilian rape kit, as all the physical evidence will be gone. You can still make a report of the assault to a civilian agency. This doesn’t mean anything more than making an official note of the attack.