Sexual Harassment in the Military
Sexual harassment continues daily in the military, even though there are harsher punishments that can happen to the harasser within the military than the civilian world. A harasser does not look to what could happen to them. They will continue till they meet the one who stands up and fights back. The harasser will proclaim they are totally virtuousness of their actions not thinking their actions hurt.
My History of Sexual Harassment
It started when I tried to join the Air Force, the recruiter would not let me enlist. This recruiter thought that no woman should be in the military. Because of that recruiter I lost many benefits that would have been given to me for being a Vietnam era veteran. I had my heart set on the Air Force so I waited. That recruiter retired and I was allowed to enlist.
I went off to my basic training and while there the female squad would get harassment from the male squads. One time that is the most memorable is when my squad was in formation waiting on our turn to get immunizations required for different duty stations. We stood there and could not walk away or do anything. A male Technical Instructor (TI) marched his male squad up beside us and had the first two rows go down on one knee so the other two rows of men behind them could view us. There he the TI started going on about if they ever wanted a woman they would have to finish their basic training and they needed to pick and think about what we could do for them. The TI got into trouble for the disrespect he had shown new female recruits.
I finished basic training knowing that the Air force was a man’s world and I was breaking new ground. Training in my field was easy and we got through that without any memorable harassment.
Once I got to my duty station the harassment was a different thing. I was one of the first in my job that was an all male field. The males did not like the idea...