Thoughts on the Senate’s Action re Military Sexual Assaults

Yesterday, the US Senate voted to force any soldier convicted of sexual assault, rape or forcible sodomy to administratively separated from the military if the court martial did not automatically do so in the sentencing phase of the hearing.

I think it is bold for the Senate to take such actions and it is also long overdue, however, I don’t think this will have the broad impact that they are hoping for.

Commanders are required to administer administrative separation. They are not required to separate. So even if the process is started to separate someone who is convicted of these crimes, there is no guarantee, unless higher levels of command, ie the brigade or higher commander intervene, that these soldiers will indeed be separated. Commanders can, and far too often do, vote to retain soldiers who do all sorts of activities that good soldiers should not do.

Additionally, you have the problem of retention boards. Any soldier who has over 6 years of service is allowed the option of having their case heard before an administrative separation board. Far too often, the good soldier defense is used to keep otherwise unfit soldiers in the military because, well, they deployed so many times or they’ve been a stellar NCO/officer. If you have a sympathetic admin sep board, you’re going to find that some of these individuals remain in the army.

And while the Senate’s action is a step in the right direction – and I in no mean intend this post to be a this won’t do any good kind of post – there are significant challenges in getting sexual assault cases to go to court martial. There are a multitude of reasons that I applaud the idea of taking sexual assault allegations out of the lower level chain of command’s hands. Quite bluntly, far too often, there simply is not enough evidence to take these cases to court martial. Trust me, I know. I tried.

These are all positive steps in the right direction but more action is needed and it needs to start with commanders/leaders being held accountable. If a commander fails to report a suspected crime, they should be held accountable. If an NCO brushes something under the rug, they should be held accountable. Until we start holding people accountable for failing to report and failing to take the appropriate actions to force the system to work, we will continue to put band aid solutions over a sucking chest wound.

The Good Soldier defense for these kinds of crimes must come to an end. Good soldiers don’t do this kind of thing.

There is no place for sexual assault in our military and commanders, it starts with us to make a difference.