Woman with Gloria Steinem (2016–…): Season 1, Episode 7 - USA: Assault in the Military - full transcript

I've traveled the world
as a writer and an activist

for my entire life.

What we are talking about
is a revolution.

We are the women that
our parents warned us about.

And I can tell you
that by confronting the problems

once marginalized
as "women's issues,"

we can tackle
the greatest dangers

of the 21st century.

Behind every major crisis,

there's an unseen factor
at play,

a story you've never been told.



The greatest indicator
of the world's stability,

wealth, and safety
is the status of women.

The United States is home
to the most powerful,

most well-funded military
on the planet.

With a nearly budget
of nearly $600 billion,

it would constitute the world's
21st largest economy,

but within
this colossal institution

that employs over 1.3 million
active-duty soldiers,

there is an insidious pattern
of sexual assault

most often directed at women.

It's a violence
that betrays those

who have devoted their lives

to maintaining the safety
and security of the country.

This is not
just a women's issue,



it is a matter
of national security.

We're down on the flight line,

basically looking
at these huge C-130 airplanes

take off and land.

These are basically the aircraft

that bring supplies
to different parts of the world.

And how many people
are on base here?

It's more than 5,000
on any given day

that are on base
between civilians and military.

Just in this squadron
that you've been visiting,

there's about 500 personnel.

Many of those soldiers
are women.

In fact,
there are over 200,000 women

active in the U.S. military,

which is more than
any other time in history.

But along with
this increased presence

have come some
very disturbing revelations.

Last year alone,
20,000 service members

are estimated
to have experienced

at least one sexual assault.

I rise again today
to highlight the epidemic

of rape and sexual assault
in the military.

While both men
and women are victimized,

female soldiers
are five-times more likely

to have been assaulted
than their male counterparts.

Hi.
Hi, I'm Katherine.

I'm Ciera.
So nice to meet you, Ciera.

Nice to meet you, too.
Please, come in.

Ciera bridges grew up
in a military family.

When she joined
the Air Force in 2008,

she had high hopes of one day
outranking her father.

For her, a military career

seemed to open up
a world of possibilities.

I joined as a 19-year-old
who had no idea

what she wanted to do in life,

and then I finally found
something that I could say that,

"Hey, I can excel in this."

I was doing logistics,

and then I got shipped off
to Osan, Korea.

I was there for a year --
amazing experience.

I was treated like an equal.

It was when I got to Nellis

where I started
having difficulties.

Ciera claims while
at Nellis Air Force Base

in Las Vegas, she was sexually
assaulted by a superior.

He started sending me nudes
of himself.

Not only that, at work,

he would touch me
inappropriately.

Supposedly he would
accidentally bump into me.

"I'm sorry.
Excuse me."

But he would keep rubbing on me,

depending on
where he touched me at.

After months
of just dealing with it,

I finally decided to report it.

The next day, I was moved
out of my work section

into a new section.

As far as Ciera knows,

there was
no formal documentation

of her complaints
against this airman.

She thought her problems
would be over

once she was transferred,

but Ciera alleges
that soon after the move,

a new round
of harassment started.

And so how did it end
in the end?

What happened?

It was like I was stuck
in my nightmare all over again.

After filing a complaint,

Ciera began receiving
formal reprimands

for minor infractions.

The harassment
continued to escalate,

turning into
a full-blown assault.

I was working late shift,
like I usually do, by myself.

He came in behind me,
forced me on top of his desk,

pulled down his pants,

and he basically started
masturbating on top of me,

and then when he was done,
he left.

And that's when I just --
I had my breaking point.

And...

that was also probably the day

that my career really ended.

Ciera reported the assault
to her supervisors,

but no investigation took place.

One month after the assault,
Ciera was issued

a formal reprimand for an
off-base incident and demoted.

After another violation
a few months later,

she was called
into her commander's office.

He told me that they were

going to initiate
a dishonorable discharge.

Her commander
cited the reprimands

and poor performance reports

as the grounds
for her discharge.

And that's when
I contacted my parents.

I asked,
"How do I fight this?"

With the help
of her family, her lawyers,

and her congressman,
Ciera finally got the Air Force

to investigate her assault.

At the end of the investigation,

the letter that they gave me
said that I was exposed

to a hazardous work environment

and the individuals
that were involved

and knew about it
were all disciplined.

The Air Force reversed
her dishonorable discharge,

allowing her to stay
in the service,

but for Ciera, the damage
could not be undone.

I was isolated.

I got to the point
where I felt like a failure

and I tried to commit suicide.

Ciera was required to undergo
a medical evaluation

which found she was suffering
from PTSD and depression.

As a result,
the Air Force recommended

she be honorably
discharged in 2013.

Suddenly, the career that meant
everything to her was now over.

It was like I was losing myself.

Who is Ciera
outside the military?

And even to this day,
I can't answer that for you.

I don't know who I am
outside the military.

Ciera isn't alone.

A 2013 survey showed that 90%
of sexual assault survivors

were involuntarily discharged
with mental disorders.

It seems that instead of

rehabilitating
assault survivors,

the military is systematically
getting rid of them.

Back now with news
about a serious problem

in the US military --
sexual assault...

In 2012, a wave
of scandals and media scrutiny

finally brought the issue of
sexual assault in the military

to the attention of Washington.

Reporting is the key.
This is about creating a culture

where victims are
comfortable coming forward.

Amid a public outcry,

a sweeping set of pro-victim
reforms introduced

by Missouri Senator
Claire McCaskill

were passed by Congress
and the Senate.

We basically have provided
the victim

with services
and their own lawyer.

We have made
retaliation a crime.

It is a long list of reforms

within the criminal
military justice system

that I believe, in my heart,

that we have done
the best job we can

to create a system
that will protect victims

and put perpetrators in prison.

Despite these reforms,
by the end of 2014,

only one out of four victims

within the Department of Defense

were choosing
to report their assaults.

Of the women
who did choose to report,

62% claim to have faced
some form of retaliation

from their peers or commanders.

We're at the Pentagon
to meet with General Gina Grosso

on her last day as director
of the sexual assault prevention

and response office.

I want to know why she thinks
more women aren't speaking up.

So, only one
in four report abuse.

Why do you think
that's the case?

If you ask people, one,

they want to put
the incident behind them.

They don't want other people
to know.

Sometimes they feel responsible.
This is amazing to me,

but they don't want to get
the person in trouble --

the perpetrator in trouble.

They don't think
anything will happen.

And that's the insidious nature
of this crime.

Can you talk about

the types of things that have
happened towards servicemen,

you know, in regards
to reporting and the problems

that they've had
as a consequence of that?

Yeah, you know, retaliation
is a really tough nut to crack.

So, there's survey data
from women that are survivors.

More than one out of
two of them, on the survey,

reported feeling some negative
outcome from reporting.

And about 1/3
of that was professional

and 2/3 was the social --

their friends
wouldn't talk to them.

They were unfriended
on Facebook.

If your friends
stop talking to you,

that's not criminal behavior,

but that's not behavior
that we want of an airman.

But retaliation is a real factor
that you have to contend with

and deal with that you see
all the time, would you agree?

No, I would not agree with that.
I don't understand.

You see retaliation
all the time?

There's so many examples

that I've even read about
for this research of,

like, people coming out

and then actually
experiencing real retaliation.

Sexual violence changes you,

but it's not necessarily
the institution

or people intentionally
trying to harm you.

If they really
are being reprised against,

we need them to be
comfortable enough to tell us

so that we would investigate it,

and then it would be
prosecuted criminally.

But we don't have that yet,

and so that's why you don't see
criminal investigations.

It's not
that there's not the law,

it's that people
aren't telling us,

and so we're working very hard
to get people to tell us.

We know that it's not,
as the D.O.D. wants to claim,

just being unfriended
on Facebook.

Retired colonel Don
Christensen served in the Air Force

for 23 years,
and from 2010 to 2014,

was its chief prosecutor.

He is currently the president
of Protect Our Defenders,

a not-for-profit group
that fights for the rights

of the victims
of military sexual assault.

A woman who reports
a sexual assault

is 13-times more likely
to be retaliated against

than she is to see her
perpetrator held accountable.

This is a severe
and persistent retaliation

that ends careers,

that drive women and men
out of the military,

and as a result,

people can commit sexual assault
with almost impunity.

Perpetrators of sexual assault

don't just traumatize
their victims in the moment.

Untreated, the effects of sexual
violence linger for years,

often unraveling entire lives.

How long have you been
out on the road now?

For about a year, I've been
without a permanent residence.

10 years ago, Colleen Bushnell

was a high-achieving
Air Force staff sergeant

in the public affairs
department.

that all ended after she claimed
she was sexual assaulted

by one superior and
raped multiple times by another.

Today, she's homeless.

I joined the military in 1997,

and I was medically
retired in 2006 due

to major depression and
post traumatic stress disorder

from the rape.

Since her mandatory retirement,

she gets a small
monthly disability payment

from the VA,
so she's not destitute,

but years of depression
and PTSD from her assault

have made it impossible
for her to hold a steady job

or create a stable home.

In 2007,
after a failed suicide attempt

and a stay at the psych ward,

her children's grandparents
sued for custody and won.

I think it's this.

Welcome to my world.

What specifically are we
picking out today?

This is a surprise for my sons.

This is a movie we watched
when they were little,

and we watch it every Christmas.

We have hot cocoa

and we build
a gingerbread house together.

So, then I have my linen,

because my linen matters to me
as a woman.

And my books...

and pictures.

And how does it feel to have
all of your stuff here,

just in a storage facility?

It's demoralizing.

Um...

There was a time
in my life when I had... a home.

I was the kind to have

a full dining-room set
and Noritake china,

and just a formal, you know,
holiday place to be

with my family and my children.

It's hard
to maintain your dignity

when this is the quality
of your existence.

As a society,
we should be saying, "This is crazy."

We can't be doing this
to the men and women

who raise their hand
and defend the country,

and we got to do better.

After Colleen Bushnell
claimed she was sexual assaulted

by one of her superiors,
her life went into a tailspin.

Her career ended,
she attempted suicide,

and her family fell apart.

She's trying
to pick up the pieces,

but she still
struggles with depression.

I had no other alternatives.

There weren't
crime-victim services in place.

Nothing about the aftermath
of my rape

reflects my character

or who I am as a person
in any way.

It's like night and day.

Life is before the rape
and after the rape.

When Colleen was
in the Air Force,

any report of sexual assault

would automatically
trigger an investigation,

opening survivors
up to retaliation.

Back in 2005, the military
made some crucial changes

to the reporting process.

Survivors are now assigned
a victim advocate

and given two options
for reporting their assaults.

The first is called
an "unrestricted report".

Survivors get access
to health and legal services,

and an investigation
takes place.

The base legal office
then makes a recommendation

to the survivor's
commanding officer,

who decides whether or not
charges should be filed.

The other option is called
a "restricted report".

Survivors still get access
to health and legal services,

but they remain anonymous
and avoid possible retaliation.

With this option,
no investigation takes place

and no charges can be filed
against the perpetrator.

We're on the ground
at Little Rock Air Force Base,

as you can see, and we're here
to talk to the experts

about their
sexual assault program.

Since victim advocates

are the front-line response
to sexual assault,

I wanted to hear about
how this process works

from their perspective.

So, when they walk
into the office,

they come to me and talk
about what happened.

We talk about the pros and cons

for the restricted
and unrestricted part

and different ways to get help.

They can decide
if they want to go forward,

if they don't want
to go forward,

how we can provide
support to them.

'Cause, you know what?

Going forward, you have to have

a preponderance of the evidence,

and it has to be
beyond a reasonable doubt,

and probably 90%
of the victims/survivors

that I talk to --

"Well, I don't want
to ruin their career.

I don't want them to get
in trouble."

And you've seen
a lot of cases, personally.

Do you see that a lot
of people bounce back,

or as a consequence,
leave the military?

We have to talk about real
expectations when they come in.

We cannot provide them something

or promise them something
that we cannot do,

because if they want
that offender to go to jail,

a lot of the times,
that's not realistic

and that's not gonna happen.

So, if we are honest with them
from the beginning

about what they expect,
how the process works,

I think they can bounce back.

In fact, within
the Department of Defense,

only 1 in 20
of all reported perpetrators

end up serving jail time.

More often,
they're formally reprimanded,

docked pay, or discharged.

According to some survivors,
that's not enough.

My goodness.

For Regina Vasquez,
the Marine Corps

was a path
to a college education

and a dream
of becoming a lawyer.

I have a lot of family members
who served in the military,

and I joined the Marines.

Graduation day --

that was the most
proudest moment ever.

And I'm a part of something
far bigger than me.

And for me to earn that title
was, like,

the highlight of my life.

But just like
the other women I spoke to,

Regina had her dreams
of a lifelong military career

cut short by sexual assault.

I had two guys found a way
to drug me and rape me.

Didn't tell anybody.

I hated life.

Okay?
I literally --

I hated being a woman.

I hated the skin I was in.

For 11 years, Regina
kept her rape a secret.

Her marriage crumbled,
she almost lost her house,

and she tried
to commit suicide several times.

I'm a Marine, trained to kill.

I didn't want
to remember being weak.

I did not want
to remember being raped.

Okay, boys, you need to put
the goldfish up.

I don't want anything
to ruin your appetite.

Regina Vasquez finally spoke out

about being raped
while in the Marines.

She's now an activist
for reforming

how the military handles
sexual assault.

For her, the reforms of 2014
didn't go far enough,

and there's one huge issue
that needs to be changed --

involvement
of the survivor's commander

after the investigation process.

We're all in one building.

We eat together
in the same chow hall.

We do everything together.

So, everybody's friends.

So, that makes it hard to
go through the chain of command.

Many advocates
for assault survivors

argue that the reforms of 2014

should have removed
military commanders

from the investigation process
entirely.

What, at it's core,
is the issue here?

The issue, at it's core,
is that we have

a military justice system
that is unlike

any other criminal
justice system in this country,

where commanders
control the entire system.

We have this concept
in our country of blind justice,

that the decision whether or not

someone is prosecuted
should be made on the facts

and the evidence and the law,
not on personal beliefs

and personal relationships,
and there's

that inherent problem
that we have

is that the commander
who makes the decision knows,

almost always,
everybody involved.

The problem is very clear,

because the victims
have told us what it is.

The victims say
it is the climate

that they fear retaliation.

Their commanders
are not creating a climate

where they can report
without being blamed,

being retaliated against,

being marginalized,
having their careers be over.

The victims tell us
they do not report

because of chain of command.

We have to change
the culture in the military.

You treat people with respect,
you hold people accountable,

you make it clear that
each member of that military

is a vital part of it

and that, when we lose one,
we all are diminished.

We all come
from different backgrounds,

different stories,
and different personalities,

but in the military,
we're supposed to be one.

"One team, one fight,"

so if one is off,
then we're all off.

There's no question
that women in Congress

and in the military
have taken real steps

to address the problem
of sexual assault,

but it's not enough.

As long as women are afraid
to come forward

because they fear retaliation,

the system is still broken,

and the very organization tasked
with defending the nation

is exposed as inherently
flawed, unequal, unjust,

and ultimately vulnerable.

To support survivors

of sexual assault
in the military, go to...