Progress?

Not long ago, when my sister married a veteran, he was told that they should not live on the post where I was born (Ft. Bragg), because it was not safe enough for a young woman. When I was little, there were times my mother was furious that she had to stay in all day at Ft. Sill, because my Dad didn’t think she should go out by herself. But I also remember being in the car and seeing him pull over on base or post so he could jump out and salute the flag. He graduated in the same class as someone who is in the news a lot. (Petraeus.) I shook little gold and black pom poms at Army football games. I used to wear a “My Daddy is a Paratrooper” t-shirt. I cried in an airport when he had to go overseas.

West Pointers always impressed me as a bunch of adults who were fit, happy, and nice to little kids at their BBQs. I remember one who joked around and showed me how to squirt water out of his hands, pretending there was a frog in the swimming pool at the Watervliet arsenal. But as I grew up, I learned that bad things can still happen among good people. In high school, I heard the story of someone whose 12-year-old daughter had been assaulted on base by a group of GI’s. She never told anyone until she wound up in the hospital years later. A girl that used to live here told me a story about her friend, a very intelligent, scientifically-minded guy who went to West Point. She said it had been his dream to go there. But a female classmate told him about a classmate who assaulted her. She made him swear not to tell anyone because she was afraid of negative consequences. After this, her friend became obsessed with watching this guy’s every move, and entertained fantasies of revenge. Finally, because he felt consumed with anger and so helpless to do anything about it, he quit. (She said he went back to school somewhere else though.) I guess that would have been in the ‘90s.

Today for some reason I had “Proud to be an American” running through my head. I understand this song gives many people good, fuzzy feelings of pride and patriotism. Not just the WASPy Christian types either. (Which is what I am if you look at my heritage.) As this song was bugging me, I turned the TV on and found a hearing on the Defense Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military. While some can listen to that patriotic song and automatically get those warm feelings, it is not so easy for me to feel that way. But at least some things are improving. Incidents that probably were routinely swept under the carpet when I was a kid, or in my teens and twenties, have begun to be seriously addressed, most recently by:
Rear. Ad. Louis Iasiello (Ret.)
Brig. Gen. Sharon Dunbar (who pointed out that there are both male and female victims)
Rep. Loretta Sanchez
Rep. Niki Tsongas
Chairwoman Susan Davis