Discharge from military because of reporting a rape? what can be done about that?

Question

This question is actually for a friend of mine. She is serving in the Coast Guard and has been sexually assaulted by another military person at her base. She reported it and been transferred to another base in another state. She was required to meet with the Coast Guard's psychologist who found her "unfit to remain in the military due to developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a direct result of being raped. She met with a civilian psychologist who confirmed that she has PTSD however she is making progress and getting well.
She been temporary assigned to the new base for 6+ months until they finally gotten all the paperwork to officially assign her to that base. Since she joined the coast guard and met the time requirement to make rank she made numerous requests to go to "A-school" to become a petty officer but each time was denied. The first time, prior to the rape she was denied because she has not gotten fully qualified. For instance first they told her to become watch qualified and that she would have her name put on an A-school list. She because watch qualified and requested again to be put on the A-school list and was denied and said that this time she must become boat crew qualified so she did and after being boat crew qualified she was again denied saying she must be engineer qualified (even though she is a seaman) but a few weeks later she was sent to her current unit.
After reporting the rape she asked her new command if she can go to A-school and was denied because there was an investigation going on. After the investigation was over she asked again and they denied her because there is a medical board going on to discharge her because she has PTSD.
Her old command wrote up "page 7's" which is negative statements that would be on your permanent record. One page 7 stated that she "has an inappropriate relationship that resulted into her choosing to be rape and a captain mass against her for inappropriate relationship is recommended" she never did have the captain mass because her current command thought that was complete bullshit that her old command is faxing over papers like that to headquarters and her current command. Her old command also would constantly contact her new command when her new command would do something positive (like give her good grades) to fight it and would bring up personal medical things (for instance they would say that one day she forgotten to take her medication and she took it at lunch instead of before breakfast and went against her doctors instruction so therefore you cannot give her a good grade in her following orders) oh yes and when I am talking about her old command I am talking about the guy who is the highest ranked there. Her old base has less than 25 people so it's not unusual for the highest person there to know what is going on with everyone at the base. Her new base has over 200 people. According to the medical department at her new base her old unit went against medical privacy laws.

She wrote up her rebuttal statement and included everything that her command did and when the statement from the coast guard psychologist, civilian psychologist and her statement trying to defend herself did it normal rounds on the base they realized that this girl has a valid reason to have developed PTSD so they now telling her that they want to discharge because she is found to be unable to adjust to the military lifestyle. Those who work directly with her on a daily basis disagree and think that she is doing just fine, if not amazingly well. Those who are in higher rank that she rarely or never see reads the things her old command is writing about her and want to discharge her.
She spoken to a Coast Guard lawyer to stopped answering her emails or returning her phone calls when she submitted evidence that she was raped in the form of the guy writing her a letter apologizing for what he did. In case you are wondering they dropped the investigation because they found "nothing" even though there is a letter written by him that clearly states his apology for the sexual assault.
I been friends with this girl since we were kids and it saddens me to see her go through so much stress. I never met anyone who is smarter, more motivated or a harder worker than she is. She is in the process of getting her master degree, she was vice president of her university, founded 3 successful businesses and 1 nonprofit and all she wanted in her life was to serve her country and to make a career out of it.
Any suggestions on what she can do? I am telling her that she should sue her old command for 1. Forbidding her to advance even though she met all the requirements that were put out by the commandant. 2. for spreading personal health information about her without her permission. 3. for discharging her for the sole reason of developing a curable problem which a doctor confirmed that she is healing.
She does not want to make things worse than they already are. Any advice is highly appreciated. Thank you.

To namsaev

1. Her military goal is to become a Chief which is an enlisted rank. The rate she wanted to get into was an enlisted only rate. She rather do the job she wants and get paid less as an enlisted member than to do something she doesnt like much and be an officer. In the Coast Guard enlisted members do more of the physical "dirty work" while officers sit on a desk. She is a more physical type person and wants to be out doing things.
2. She is 25 years old, enlisted when she was 23.

3. I meant vice president of student government. I did not thought I had to state the obvious.

4. I knew this girl since we were in grade school. I know what she is telling me is the truth. She has/had many symptons of someone who been raped. I also read the letter in which her shipmate wrote and apologized to her about the rape.

to everyone else:
thanks for your help.

Answer 1

Based on what you stated, she should seek a permanent disability discharge with VA benefits tax free for life. Stick it to the Government. Have her contact her Congressman and Senators, each who have a military liason person to deal with issues such as this. What state is she in? I can help direct her to who to call

Answer 2

The military takes rape very seriously!! I can't tell you how many times I have had to sit through rape prevention classes and how to deal with rape victims in the event of an assault. The military is VERY "by the books" about rape charges because they are such a serious offense and mishandled can ruin careers.

Point being, you are not privy to the official paperwork and there are always two sides to the story. I know this girl is your friend and you should stick by her but there are legitimate reasons the military is not doing more for her than they already are (and if you ask me she is getting treated like anyone else). PTSD is not something you can be cured of, I would know I was in Iraq. No amount of hugs from family and help from a therapist is going to cure someone. Why are guys from Vietnam still suffering from it? She was removed from the former post for good reason and her being discharged is standard operating procedure.

With all of that said, please keep in mind the military justice system is just like the civilian justice system. They may not have enough evidence to make a rape charge stick and they are handling it to the best of their ability. They are not promoting her or sending her to school if she is being discharged. It is a waste of time and money and deprives other people of the school slot.

As far as spreading personal health info about her that should be investigated but that can rarely stick. The military is the biggest rumormill in the world and you have no privacy. If she just offhandedly mentioned to someone about a "hangnail" or something else it is going to be all over post in 20 minutes.

Lastly, you are probably only hearing one side of the story. I had a girl that worked for me that was dating a soldier in another unit. She showed up to work with a black eye one day and said he was beating her. We ordered her to have no contact AT ALL with the guy until an investigation could be done. Turns out she was sneaking into his room, calling him all the time, and even was hitting him. All we were able to do was kick him out of the Army and do nothing about her disobeying a direct order!

I am not saying this is not a crappy situation but she is going to have a hard time. She will not be promoted or sent to a school if she is being discharged, Sorry! The military has more to lose by keeping her in than they do by sending her home.

If she wants to pursue it, call congressman, senators, JAG lawyers, and the Inspector General, and let all of them know the story and let them make the professional judgement. A lot of time, people will roll-over just to get someone to stop bitching.

Answer 3

Ignore what the person above says. He just a grunchy old man.

What your friend is going through is actually fairly common in the military. There is actually a huge investigation going on within all the branches of the military and congress on how the military dealt with those who reported sexual abuse. My advice to her to to get the word out, tell everyone she can. Start with her command, the congress, the senate, even the commander in chief. If she wants/emotionally able to tell the media. Contact a womens group or a sexual abuse victim organization but I cant stress out how much she should share her story with people. Remember she is the victim here and she would be protected by the media. Her name can not be realsed so if I was her I would just go and tell everyone. Get a civilian lawyer. If you contact a victim support group they may even set one up for little or no cost.

As for her former command...I agree sue those people. they made a difficult situation even more difficult and if her current command can prove that they received such information about her (ie; private medical information) than thats all she needs. Its an easy case.

good luck

Answer 4

1. What is she doing in the Goast Guard as a seaman when she has a degree? YOU did say she was working on her masters which implies she already has a batchelors. She qualifies for OCS already.

2. What's when she has accomplished all she has? Three businesses and an NPO and she's how old?

3. Since she doesn't have a masters what university would have her as their vice president?

4. I'm not even going to go into how full of holes your story of her perils and trials is. 22 years experience in the military and 61 IRL tells me that she's either the consumate liar or you are incredibly gullible.

Answer 5

I would advise your friend to consult with the JAG officer and find out if her former commander has violated the UCMJ if so then charges should be filed. By the sound of your story he and at least 2 others in his chain of command have. If JAG won't listen get a civilian lawyer to examine the case and see if she has any legal recourse. I don't think she will be able to remain inservice though due to their military Doctors prognosis.

Answer 6

it really is a project in a good number of of the protection rigidity service branches, per chance more effective so contained in the Marines because of the interior way of life. it truly is all a question of what moves are allowed by way of the administration and that are suppressed. human beings are not allowed to rape and sexually harass human beings contained in the civilian international, and that is because the powers that be honestly implement those regulations. of direction, the guidelines are not being enforced contained in the Marines, from the bottom degrees to the optimal. After some human beings lost their jobs, you would possibly want to quickly locate that the point of rape and harassment might want to be about an identical because it really is interior some thing of the inhabitants.

Answer 7

The sad fact of the matter is that she is being released as 'medically unfit for service.' This is a medical determination - not a JAG determination.

Remember that the question here is: "Is she medically fit for combat duty?"

BTW - speaking as a retired First Sergeant - I would strongly suspect that you have only been given one side of the story.

Answer 8

Contact the Chaplain and Inspector General, then if she doesn't get satisfaction, have her write her Congressmen/women and report this incident.

Contact a civilian lawyer that specializes in military law. It will cost more, but will be worth it. DO NOT go to SJA. They can't do anything.

Answer 9

holy shiznit, that's a long story! I didn't read it all.. I'm sorry. But PTSD can be very disturbing... although I kind of doubt she had it, it's very possible that something similar happened to her in the her past or childhood. This happening NOW could have stirred up bad memories from before, causing her unfit. I'm sorry this happened.