The Invisible War Page #6

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- The atmosphere

off the bat

At marine barracks

washington was horrible.

Um, people asked me

what sexual favors

Had I performed

to get my orders there.

- There was a senior officer

in my command who-

The first time

he spoke to me he said,

"female marines here

are nothing but

Objects for the marines

to f***."

- So the minute a female

shows up at my work,

She's immediately

pounced on.

All of the new females

get talked about,

Saying if they're

having sex,

Sleeping with so and so.

Apparently I slept with

all these men.

And, I mean, I didn't.

- It got progressively

worse and worse.

They determined that

I welcomed

The sexual harassment by

Wearing my regulation length

uniform skirt

And running in

running shorts.

There were several

junior female marines

That came up to me crying

while I was there,

Saying that they felt

too humiliated to come to work.

- One of the duties at

marine barracks washington

Was a ceremonial drill.

The evening parades are what

you would see on the news.

The silent drill platoon,

the president,

Everybody goes

to those type of things.

- [chanting]

- After the parades,

all the officers

Are required to stay

till midnight and drink

In center house at

marine barracks washington.

So we're talking about

Wednesday night happy hours

That start 3:
00 and end

at 2:
00 a.M.

- It was a partying

and drinking culture.

The atmosphere revolved

around going out

And partying and drinking.

- I was ordered to drink.

I was ordered to attend

the drinking events.

- My boss even said, um,

That they were mandatory

to me.

She's like, "we do our best work

at these events."

- We went to various pubs

and bars

And the goal was

to do a shot at each one,

All paid for

by the marine corps.

- You're talking about

drinking events

Where other senior officers

are drinking to the point

Of peeing in the pants,

you know,

Passing out on lawns.

This is the norm.

At one bar I had water, and

I was ordered a shot anyways

And told I needed to take

two shots to make up for that.

I left the bar

to get a cab.

My company commander

followed me

And said, "I need to talk to you

about some things."

So we walked up the stairs

into his office.

There was a little bit

of a struggle.

Like, he tried to kind of

make an advance,

And tried to kiss me.

I tried to leave and he slammed

the door on my arms.

I fell on the ground

and hit my face on his desk.

And the next thing

I realized was

I had woken up wearing

his shorts

With all of my clothes off

and in tremendous pain.

I knew enough about me

that something wasn't right.

And I had felt

entirely violated.

The colonel at one point said,

"you know,

lieutenant helmer,

"boys, girls, and alcohol

just don't mix.

"we'll never really know

what happened

"inside that office.

"only you and the major know,

and he's not talking.

"so at this point

the investigation is closed

"for lack of evidence.

"and we've reopened

a new investigation against you

"for conduct unbecoming

an officer

And public intoxication."

- I remember-

we're going to the bar.

It was an officer that's

there to buy shots for us.

After I'd a couple drinks,

That's all I remember.

This officer bragged

to his fellow officer friends

That he had "bagged" me.

I got called up

to a major's office

And he charged me with

fraternization and adultery.

He was married.

I wasn't.

And I was charged

with adultery.

- I told the battalion x.O.

About the humiliation

and the comments.

And he said, "you know,

you should do

"what a marine officer

should do,

And that's to ignore it

and move on."

- I used lie awake in bed,

you know,

Wondering what I could do

to help her get out.

- [crying]

he said that

If told anybody,

That he was gonna have

his friend marv from indiana

Kill me and throw me

in a ditch.

Because that's how they

took care of things in indiana.

- She went to war.

And gave nine years

of her life.

And for them to take it

and come back and say...

"yes, they called you

a whore.

"yes, they called you

a slut.

"yes, they called you

a walking mattress.

"it's documented over and over

and over again.

"but you deserved it.

"and when you complained

about it,

You were welcoming it."

- The actions of my seniors,

Both in the assault and

in the ensuing investigations

Have really destroyed me.

- When your wife doesn't

come home to-

To a-

Rummage through the house

searching for the suicide note.

[crying]

To call the police

with one hand

While you're restraining her

from killing herself

With the other-

[crying]

- I think the thing that

makes me the most angry

Is not even the rape

in itself.

It's the commanders

that were complicit

In covering up

everything that happened.

- This is an organization

that gives commanders

An unbelievable amount

of power.

And I felt it

as a lieutenant in iraq.

It's-it's scary.

You appoint

the prosecution.

You appoint the defense.

You appoint

the investigator.

You're in charge

of the police force.

You're in charge

of the community.

You own everything.

- Uh, you are judge.

You are jury.

You are executioner.

- Most americans assume

that there is access

To a system of justice.

So that, for example,

if you're a civilian

And you're raped,

you can call the police.

And then you have

prosecutors.

Either federal prosecutors,

state prosecutors,

Local prosecutors,

that bring

The perpetrator

to justice.

The problem with the military

is that instead,

They have to go to their

chain of command.

- Now, in our system

of military justice,

It is the commander, uh,

who's responsible, um,

You know,

to the chain of command

For how that investigation

proceeds.

- I know that there's been

numerous times

Over my career

that I regretted

Than an individual commander

had the-

The total say-so

over a case.

Most of 'em don't have

the training or the education

To determine

what's appropriate

In serious felony

criminal investigations.

The problem in the military

is the convening authority,

Who is not legally trained,

makes the final decision.

- They had a change of command

at my old squadron

Where the guy that raped me

was still stationed.

Um, he had only been in command

for four days.

And he made the decision

over legal to stop the case.

What I saw was commanders,

And these are

field grade officers,

Lieutenant colonels,

colonels,

Um, who have been in 20,

They're career officers.

And they sweep cases

under the rug.

- The last thing

a company commander in the army

Wants to do is make

the phone call

To his or her

battalion commander to say,

"I have had an allegation

of a rape in my unit."

This is viewed in many cases

as a failure to command

That will adversely then

affect their career.

- Sometimes you'd see

a guy get four, five years

For selling a minor

amount of drugs.

Then you'd see a guy get,

you know,

Two weeks extra duty

for a rape.

- The military hides behind

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