Veterans Testify on Rapes and Scant Hope of Justice

Christopher Gregory/The New York Times — Witnesses at a Senate panel investigating sexual assault in the military were, from left, Anu Bhagwati of the Service Women’s Action Network; BriGette McCoy, who was raped when she was 18 while with the Army in Germany; Rebekah Havrilla, a former Army sergeant who was raped by a superior officer; and Brian K. Lewis, a former Navy petty officer who was raped by a superior.

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER, NYT
Published: March 13, 2013

WASHINGTON — Choking back tears and in voices edged with rage, two women and a man who served in the American military told a Senate panel on Wednesday how they were raped by superiors and then ridiculed or ignored by military officials from whom they sought help.

The three former service members, the first military sexual assault victims to testify before a Senate panel, described a pervasive culture of harassment and danger in which victims had little or no redress.

One spoke of a rape she endured during her first months of service, and another told of a sergeant who stripped naked and danced on a table during an official sexual harassment training session. After spending a year repeatedly harassed, Rebekah Havrilla, a former Army sergeant deployed to Afghanistan from 2006 to 2007, was raped by a superior a week before returning home.

“I chose not to do a report of any kind because I had no faith in my chain of command,” Ms. Havrilla said. When she sought help from an Army chaplain, she said, he told her “the rape was God’s will” and urged her to go to church.

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