By Donna Hoffmeyer
Okay, it’s time for real talk.
This has to be one of the most disturbing headlines I saw this past week.
Fort Hood Soldier Found Dead After Telling Family About Sexual Harassment
Fort Hood…WTF!
Vanessa Guillen wasn’t enough? Nearly 3 years later and we have a repeat performance. A young soldier telling her family she was being sexually harassed is now dead.
Preliminary reports from Army CID said they do not suspect foul play. Well, yippee.
We must also eliminate harmful behaviors that undermine readiness. There is no place in our Army for sexual harassment and assault, domestic violence, extremism, or racism.
— HON Christine E. Wormuth, Secretary of the Army
These were Ms. Wormuth’s words in response to Vanessa Guillen’s murder. Ma’am, it looks like your branch has come up a little short. Blood is still on the Army’s hands.
As a female Veteran with an entire career behind me, I’ve experienced my fair share of harassment. If there is any glimmer of a silver lining, as an officer, my rank kept half the population at bay; and in my later years, I could go head-to-head with many more. This isn’t a braggadocious statement…it’s a fact.
Pvt. Ana Basaldua Ruiz did not have the same luxury. Her rank made her subordinate to everyone…and from the looks of things, it is clear some took advantage of it.
It is easy to think, why don’t they just speak up? Why didn’t she go to her supervisor or commander? “Good order and discipline” has a dark side to it.
It keeps people quiet.
Once you stir the pot, you are labeled a troublemaker…and that is a liability in the military. The lower the rank, the easier it is for the military to isolate the survivor, and the harder it is for the survivor to speak up and fend off the retribution.
And trust me when I say there is retribution.
The Big Machine
It has to be understood that success in the military is measured by the success of the team, not the individual. If an individual is making waves, it can inhibit the team’s success.
The military has no idea how to help an individual. It is not in their structural DNA. Picture a massive Humvee, carrying all the service members; slowly, but steadily, moving forward. If someone falls off (e.g. medical/mental health/personal issues) the military might throw out resources to them, or cheer them on in encouragement…but the machine never stops moving forward. They either recover before the Humvee gets too far ahead and hop back on…or they don’t.
In other not-so-supportive scenarios, the military may help move them to the edge and hit a few bumps extra hard.
The Causalities
What the military does know is how to get everything back to homeostasis as quickly as possible to ensure they can complete the mission. If it costs them a few causalities, well…it is what it is. In the military world, everything comes at a cost.
Ask the person that the military separated from service for failed PT test, but did nothing to help her when she reported being sexually assaulted…three times.
How about the person that had significant PTSD, attempted suicide five times, and her unit did nothing to help her with resources? Instead, the senior ART, scrolled through her Facebook, found a picture of her at a restaurant smiling, and sent it to her commander and me stating it was not a proper representation of someone with PTSD, implying she was faking it.
Apparently, you cannot have good days when you are dealing with PTSD. The things you learn (*cue eye roll*).
There is the leadership that repeatedly bullied an injured service member to the point the service member punched a table, breaking it in half. Leadership then deemed him dangerous and put a BOLO (be on the lookout) on him so they had awareness when he was on base.
Let’s add in the leadership that attempted to isolate a service member with PTSD, telling the advocate and spouse the meeting with him was classified. (It wasn’t.) The result? The anxiety of the upcoming meeting triggered him. The day before the meeting he was admitted to the ER, and on his intake form, it stated he had visions of choking out his group commander.
These are just a few of the countless stories I have witnessed.
If you want to learn about the number of times the military has failed the individual check out Military Crime on IG. She is dedicated to bringing awareness to the crimes people have been a victim of in the military.
The Culture
Please understand, what we are talking about here is culture. There are many good military people doing their best to advocate. However, they are up against a system that cannot afford to fail. Failure is defined as not completing the mission/task/objective. The problem is humans become the expendable asset in this culture.
Furthermore, we are trained to understand and accept that we are indeed an expendable asset.
Service before self. -military ethos
A Veteran…wrote a blank check to the United States of America for an amount up to and including their life. ~Unknown
Part of the American dream is to live long and die young. Only those Americans willing to die for their country are fit to live. ~General Douglas McArthur
If we did not have this cultural understanding, we would not be able to successfully defend this country. It is also a bit of a double edge sword. It is this same understanding that can cause us to lose our individual voice and see ourselves as more or less leftovers and made to feel guilty and selfish for standing up for ourselves.
The Leaders
Leaders, you are not “up there” and your people “down there”. You are all in the same damn space. It is your responsibility to create a safe environment. If you do not minimize assumptions and bias, you are at risk of creating an unsafe space.
I know this from experience…I failed my troop.
Years ago, when I was a first-time nurse manager, a nurse came to me and told me the senior enlisted on the unit made an inappropriate comment to one of our techs about her breast.
I asked that she come talk to me, so I am hearing it from the person. She did and said he was not saying anything directly. It was more alluding and joking around, but no matter, I could see it made her feel uncomfortable. I told her if it happened again, I wanted to know immediately. She nodded, but I never heard anything else.
Anyone cringing yet? I am.
A few days later, my boss came to me to validate what he heard. He was very curious why I did not elevate it.
When he asked, I had no legit answer. I was a brand new nurse manager? I had never been in this situation? I was trying to handle it at the lowest level? Part of me couldn’t believe this person was capable of making those comments?
To this day, I do not have a good answer. If I had to guess, it was all that, plus I was trying to process everything and got into analysis paralysis. My boss handled me with grace when I was not sure it was warranted.
When I reflect, how I handled that situation was a regret that will live with me forever. If I wasn’t willing to act when she came to me the first time, why would she trust I would do anything the next time? Her leadership (me) failed her.
I can only hope that it did not leave too much of a scar. So, SSgt K, in the odd chance you read this…my sincerest and deepest apologies for my failure.
Where Do We Go From Here
After the Vanessa Guillen incident, a Fort Hood Independent Review Committee (FHIRC) was established to get to the root cause. In November 2020, they published their report, identifying 70 areas needing improvement. As of Oct 2022, all 70 were addressed.
In the first paragraph of the executive summary, it stated:
…the FHIRC determined that during the time period covered by the Review, the command climate relative to the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) Program at Fort Hood was ineffective, to the extent that there was a permissive environment for sexual assault and sexual harassment.
Two paragraphs down, it went into more detail about the impact of an ineffective Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) Program.
A resonant symptom of the SHARP Program’s ineffective implementation was significant underreporting of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Without intervention from the NCOs and officers entrusted with their health and safety, victims feared the inevitable consequences of reporting: ostracism, shunning and shaming, harsh treatment, and indelible damage to their career. Many have left the Army or plan to do so at the earliest opportunity.
To read the entire 152 pages, click here.
While I understand changing culture follows the rule of 7s (it takes an average of 7 years to change a culture), there has to be greater pressure put on this change when there are lives on the line. Maybe, this unfortunate disaster will be an impetus to increasing the demand for this critically needed cultural transformation.
Or maybe not.
One thing I found interesting was a comment made by an interviewee.
There is a disparity in the treatment of individuals based on race and its blatantly obvious. . . The punishments for infractions should be the SAME across the board. Currently this is not the case. Diversity & Inclusion and Racism & Sexism training should be implemented in basic training and should be an annual requirement taught by someone OUTSIDE that organization.
The idea that the start of the culture change should begin at basic training is spot on, and yet when I did a search for basic training or education, it was all geared toward educating leadership. Yes, education needs to be top-down…but it must simultaneously be bottom-up.
There are no changes the Army can do to bring back Pvt. Ana Basaldua Ruiz to her loved ones. The 70 issues they addressed were still not enough to protect her. I can only hope while biding time behind their plethora of lawyers, they are readdressing the FHIRC’s recommendations and determining where they veered off track.
The idealist in me is ever hopeful the Army will step forward and fully own their failure. The realist side of me knows that is a stretch. However, at a minimum, they need to put an enormous emphasis on cultural change before all 14 of Fort Hood’s gates are posthumously renamed.
