"Silenced No More": The Courage of a Soldier - Life After Military Sexual Trauma

By Stormie Dunn

When we were asked what we wanted to be or do when we grew up, none of us woke up and said, Today, I have made the decision to be raped and have my dignity, self-worth, and pride ripped away. Tomorrow I will live in a constant, crippling fear and avoid sleep due to nightmares. Oh wait. They chase me even when I am awake. Post-traumatic stress disorder made me spiral out of control. I lost relationships, friendships, jobs, and my family due to the never-ending reaches of depression. I never wanted to drink or use drugs to numb the pain that would never go away. I never wanted to lose the place I once called home and roam the streets on my own. I never wanted the future to include pulling a trigger with shaking hands, swallowing pills, drinking and driving, or committing suicide by cop to end the hell Ive called life.

How serious is the issue of military rape?

Reports of sexual assault in the U.S. Military
have inundated local and national media.
Due to the extent of coverage across all
military branches, it has resulted in a series

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 18, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491835081

Stormie Dunn

Stormie Dunn is a U.S. Army Veteran, Criminal Justice graduate from Hank Houston State University and an avid advocate for fellow Military Sexual Trauma victims and their family members. She lives in Fairfield Bay, Arkansas with her husband of fifteen years and is the mother of three children, a stepson, and the grandmother of three beautiful grandchildren. She is active in her church, community and continues her road to recovery at the Little Rock Veterans Administration Hospital.

Book preview

Silenced No More

The Courage of a Soldier—

Life After Military Sexual Trauma

Stormie Dunn

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AuthorHouse™ LLC

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© 2013 Stormie Dunn. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 12/16/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4918-3510-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-3509-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-3508-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013920712

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Dedication

I Wore the Uniform with Pride

Soldier’s Creed

I Lost My Life to Fear

Life Built on Hopes and Dreams

Life in a Daze

He Can Hurt Me Any Longer…

Staff Sergeant Sophie Champoux

About the Author

We were willing

to give our lives

for our country.

In return, our country

has taken our sanity.

However,

we will be

silenced no more!

Dedication

To all who have suffered from military sexual trauma (MST), those who have survived it, those who have lost their lives because of it, and the families left behind to grieve for those who were victims of it.

To my husband and confidant. Without your love and encouragement, I would not have been able to share my story with you.

To my children. You are my world. You have lived through this hell along with me, and you have suffered at the hands of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as if it was your burden to carry as well.

To retired U.S. Army Major Timothy Young. You a very special friend who encouraged me to seek God for healing, to speak out until heard and seek justice until satisfied.

To Special Agent Shawn Keyes. Without your dedication and tenacity I would not have found the justice you made possible.

My prayer is for healing of all who have been affected by the nightmare of military sexual trauma. I pray that along with the healing, all families—as well as my children and I—may finally build the strong, healthy relationships we have each needed and form the bonds of a loving family as God intended.

I Wore the Uniform with Pride

I walked the walk with my head held high.

Although I never fought in a war on foreign soil,

I fight a battle full of toil.

Raped by those who were supposed to have your back,

Wanting to hide in the cracks.

Struggling to find a reason,

Why did they commit such treason?

Killing my soul and hope,

Forever sliding further down the slope.

Chasing the demons that consume my nights

Always ready to take flight.

How do I find that which eludes me

When all I can do is flee?

My scars did not come from IEDs or bombs,

They came from a soldier defiling me.

When we were asked what we wanted to be or do when we grew up, none of us woke up and said, Today, I have made the decision to be raped and have my dignity, self-worth, and pride ripped away. Tomorrow I will live in a constant, crippling fear and avoid sleep due to nightmares.

Oh wait. They chase me even when I am awake. Post-traumatic stress disorder made me spiral out of control. I lost relationships, friendships, jobs, and my family due to the never-ending reaches of depression. I never wanted to drink or use drugs to numb the pain that would never go away. I never wanted to lose the place I once called home and roam the streets on my own. I never wanted the future to include pulling a trigger with shaking hands, swallowing pills, drinking and driving, or committing suicide by cop to end the hell I’ve called life.

How Serious Is the Issue of Military Rape?

Reports of sexual assault in the United States military have inundated local and national media. Due to the extent of coverage across all military branches, it has resulted in a series of scandals and embarrassments that have brought to light a very old problem known as the military’s dirty little secret.

According to the Pentagon, sexual assaults in the military have increased to the alarming level of seventy per day, or three per hour. Twenty-six thousand service members were sexually assaulted in 2012, a 35 percent increase since 2010 when nineteen thousand such cases were reported. However, the overall rate of sexual assault in the US military may be higher because many victims fail to report out of fear of vengeance or lack of justice under the military’s system of reporting and prosecution.

Several organizations are currently visiting and calling to compel Senators and their staff to support Sen. Gillibrand’s legislation to fundamentally reform the military justice system by passing the MJIA, or Military Justice Improvement Act. The MJIA would take major crimes, including rape and sexual assault outside the chain of command; Americans now recognize that decisions on whether to prosecute allegations of sexual assault within the military should be made by independent group of military prosecutors instead of within the military chain of command. Our opponents and the Pentagon would like to delay, but Sen. Gillibrand has pledged that come hell or high water we will have our day on the floor of the U.S. Senate this year. She is determined to press for a vote, so all of America can see who truly stands with the men and women in the military, their families, veterans and on the side of fair, impartial justice.

We will redouble our efforts in the coming days to convince all undecided Senators that this vote is foundational to our democracy. Simply put, it is a matter of human rights. Service members deserve a professional, unbiased justice system equal the system afforded to the civilians they protect. You can be part of this reform—Call, Write or email your Senators and demand they support the Military Justice Improvement Act.

As you read this book, both men and women in our military are being sexually harassed and/or sexually assaulted. Gender does not seem to play a role in reported perpetrators; both men and women have committed these atrocities. Precise data for how common sexual assault and harassment are is difficult to give because both crimes often go unreported. History has proven that women are more often sexually victimized than men are; however, men in the military are raped and/or sexually assaulted at an alarming rate as well. Statistics indicate that 23-28 percent of women have reported a sexual assault, but only 3.5 percent of men have reported a sexual assault. However, because men outnumber women in the military, the data indicates that as many men as women have experienced sexual assault.

Another population of the problem that has continued to be overlooked is the children! Below are three cases from June and July 2013. It took approximately thirty seconds to find the three stories on the Internet.

In July 2013, a recently deployed National Guard member was accused of sexually abusing three of his children. The man was indicted on seventeen counts of having sexually abused two twelve-year-olds and one five-year-old according to the chief police officer for the police department. He was the stepfather of one of the children and had adopted the other two. The alleged abuse took place between 2006 and 2012, according to court documents. In addition to sexual battery, the guardsman was also indicted on charges of rape, sexual imposition, and intimidation of an attorney, victim, or witness in a criminal case.

In June 2013, an air force lieutenant colonel was charged with assaulting and sexually molesting a young girl on multiple occasions between 2005 and 2011, according to a copy of the charge sheet. The alleged incidents occurred in Virginia and Ohio while the lieutenant colonel was assigned to the Pentagon—which is located in Washington, DC. In dozens of incidents detailed on the charge sheet, the air force charged that he engaged in sexual contact with a girl who was younger than twelve years old when the alleged abuse began.

In June 2013, police arrested a twenty-eight-year-old army staff sergeant for sexually assaulting his two juvenile stepdaughters. Police stated that the army staff sergeant was arrested and charged with two counts of continual sexual abuse of a child after police received a report that the stepfather was molesting the two young girls. During the investigation, police determined that the army staff sergeant had sexually assaulted the girls multiple times over the course of five years. Many of the incidents occurred in Arizona, but some may have happened on other military bases around the country.

Once again, I ask, how serious is the issue of military rape? Is this a problem that society should be concerned about? Write down your answers to these questions and review them once you have completed this book to see if your views have changed.

My world twist and spins in this darkness called PTSD

I search for the array of beauty that comes from a rainbow

I try to grasp the golden rays of light given by the sun

I reach for the hope given from prayers

I long to see the world through those rose colored glasses

I strive to see the beauty of a newborn child

I long to feel the love and laughter so many others take for granted

My rainbow is locked inside a twister that never ends

My sun is shrouded in darkness full of anguish

My prayers are locked inside a head full of doubt

My colored glasses are forever coated in black

A newborn child is pitied for the world it will live in

My ears and heart are dead to love and laughter

My world twist and spins in this darkness called PTSD

Army Rank Structure

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"I, Stormie Dunn, do solemnly swear (or affirm)