Deborah D. Tucker

(WOMENSENEWS)–Cynthia Eng was married to a high-ranking Air Force missile launch officer. Within the kickoff few years, he began beating and raping her. Soon he would also trounce and molest their children.

As they moved from base of operations to base of operations, she tried over and over to go assist. One base of operations commander told her, "No officer'due south married woman on my base is going to a shelter," while constabulary departments from California to Ohio told her, "This is a military matter–we can't interfere."

The Family Service Heart at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, she said, went so far as to blame her.

In 1992, afterward 10 years of abuse of her and her children, Cynthia shot her married man with ane of his own weapons. She served three and a half years in an Ohio prison earlier being acquitted in a second trial. It featured her drastic 911 call in which she recounted her efforts to go aid.

Today, Eng is in the vanguard of a movement of survivors and advocates who are demanding an end to what they telephone call a crisis of domestic violence in all ranks of the U.Due south. war machine. Most of the women are civilians, their abusers are in the armed services and they are discipline to military machine procedures on bases, not noncombatant police force. Beatings and abuse that would be felonies under noncombatant law are often dismissed on a armed forces base, they claim.

In response to women like Eng and a CBS News 60 Minutes documentary in 1999, "The War at Home," on domestic violence, the Pentagon established a 24-member military-civilian task force to study the problem and make recommendations to the Secretary of Defense.

The interim 119-page study issued this week contains no dramatic revelations but makes 72 recommendations, labeled the "Mother of All Recommendations." They range from amending the Uniform Code of Armed services Justice to better utilizing civilian resource to help dilapidated women.

Study Declares 'Cipher-Tolerance' for Domestic Violence in Military

"Domestic violence is an law-breaking against the institutional values of the Military Services of the United States of America," the report begins. "It is an barb to human dignity, degrades the overall readiness of our armed services and will non be tolerated in the Department of Defense."

The chore strength urges Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld to issue a memorandum to all undersecretaries and commanding generals, ordering them to take whatever measures are necessary to eliminate domestic violence under their commands at all levels.

Reliable figures or estimates of domestic violence in the U.S. military are hard to come by. As in the example with civilians, many women do not report abuse and many military police do non know how to deal with domestic violence. Official reports are considered underestimates.

CBS News' 60 Minutes written report estimated that the rate of domestic violence in the military is 5 times that in the civilian population. The recent report says merely that among 700,000 military families, incidents reported to armed forces agencies are down from 22 per one,000 couples in 1997 to 17 per i,000 in 1999. The war machine figures practice not count unmarried "intimate partners," which are included in most civilian studies.

Current studies by Richard Gelles of the University of Pennsylvania, among others, estimate domestic violence in the military is at least two to three times higher than among civilians.

'Mother of All Recommendations' Includes …

Among the report's recommendations:

  • Holding offenders accountable; few are disciplined or punished today.
  • Amending the Uniform Code of Military Justice to proscribe violations of civilian protection orders. Violations are non punishable now.
  • Upgrading the military police and forensics investigation of corruption and then that cases can be filed and prosecutions proceed.
  • Providing more confidentiality to women who report abuse.
  • Establishing community liaison officers and working closely with customs services for battered women.
  • Expanding education and grooming in domestic violence and prevention, especially for military police force.
  • Increasing funding for services to victims and families.

Rumsfeld has 90 days to review, annotate and forward the report to Congress, where the House and Senate Armed Services committees wait comments from the Defense Department before taking whatsoever action. Rumsfeld is expected to issue a tough guild.

The report was issued later on the chore force completed its kickoff year of piece of work, visiting 4 of the nation'southward 584 military bases: Campsite Lejeune and Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C., and Langley Air Force Base of operations and Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia. More visits are planned.

Lt. Gen. Jack W. KlimpThe armed forces co-chair of the chore force is Marine Lt. Gen. Jack Westward. Klimp, former commander of Parris Island, S.C., Marine Corps preparation eye. Asked about the military group'south experience in domestic violence, Klimp said, "Quite a lot, actually. Some accept been involved from the command'south perspective, some from the family unit services perspective. For some information technology'due south personal."

Klimp said sometimes junior officers try to minimize domestic violence committed by "good Marines," and he tells them:

"Being a good Marine does not involve thumping on your wife."

The civilian co-chair is Deborah D. Tucker, manager of the National Preparation Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence in Austin, Tex. In her work with the Texas Council on Family Violence, Tucker founded the National Domestic Violence Hotline, 1-800-799-SAFE, and worked for passage of the National Violence Confronting Women Act.

Civilian Co-Chair Says Military Is 'Trying to Get It Right'

She expressed surprise at the depth and breadth of the military's efforts to deal with domestic violence. "I didn't realize in that location was quite every bit much in place as in that location truly is," she said. "That isn't to say that it'due south all working, just there's a sincere desire to endeavor to become information technology correct."

Tucker and Klimp have proposed that Rumsfeld sign a memorandum stating that domestic violence is a pervasive problem within order that transcends all ethnic, racial, gender and socioeconomic boundaries and that information technology will not be tolerated in the Department of Defence.

These problems are cipher new, nor are the recommendations, according to advocates who take worked with survivors for years. What matters, some say, is the political volition and decision to ensure that the zero-tolerance message is communicated to every one in accuse at every level. Critics question whether the military, because of its nature, tin can truly cheque the violence and its willingness to enforce zero-tolerance from top to bottom.

Of the 12,043 substantiated reports of domestic violence in fiscal year 1999, 69 percentage involved balmy abuse, 24 percent moderate abuse, 6 pct severe abuse and ane percent non described, co-ordinate to the Defense force Manpower Data Center of the Defence force Department. The degrees of corruption were not defined.

Contrary to indications from the military, battered women's shelters in military communities tell a dissimilar story, one of escalating violence. Their caseload has increased–and and then has the level of violence.

"We have many clients whose cases would fit the standard of a felony in the civilian community," says Christine Hansen, whose Miles Foundation is contacted by victims-survivors nationwide. "Many attacks included the use of weapons, of knives."

Report's Details Illustrate Breadth, Complexity of Problem

The details in the findings and recommendations in each of the four major areas reveal organisation-wide failures to address family violence issues in the military and the complex response required for the military machine to brainstorm catching upwards with the standards adopted in the noncombatant world.

Victim Safety

The task forcefulness praised the military's elaborate Family Advocacy Program and its many sub-agencies. Merely it expressed concern over women's lack of access to "confidential community services," saying this has an inhibiting effect on whether a adult female will report violence and what she will say, for fear of repercussions.

It suggests creation of an culling, confidential system that gives victim-survivors more freedom to devise their own solutions.

"Explore all options for creating a organization of confidential services, privileged communications and/or exemptions to mandatory reporting with the goal of creating access to a credible avenue for victims of domestic violence to receive support, information, options and resources to accost the violence in their lives," information technology says.

Offender Accountability

Investigations are oftentimes unprofessional and incomplete, making it difficult to build cases confronting offenders, it says, recommending more teaching and training.

"Although data are difficult to obtain, it is apparent that relatively few military personnel are prosecuted or administratively sanctioned on charges stemming from domestic violence," it says. The study finds get-go-response investigations inadequate in nearly every respect, from photographing injuries to taking accurate histories and witness reports. Follow-up is rare.

"Preliminary investigations conducted by commencement responders and misdemeanor investigators ofttimes fail to come across professional standards such every bit determining the principal aggressor; obtaining a history of prior violence; taking kid witness statements; conducting a lethality assessment; photographing victim and offender injuries and appearance; determining offensive versus defensive injuries; and photographing property damage at the crime scene. … Follow-up investigations are not the norm."

Community Collaboration

"Not all civilian orders of protection are entitled to enforcement on war machine installations," the report said, noting that many commands either ignored or were unaware of community resource on domestic violence.

Information technology urges that the Uniform Code of Armed services Justice (the arrangement that handles most crimes committed by armed forces personnel) exist amended to proscribe violation of civilian protective orders.

It recommends a full-fourth dimension noncombatant liaison position at every military base of operations.

Education and Training

The report recommends expanded training and education in all areas, including the armed services police, like those who refused to help Cynthia Eng.

"Many, if non almost, armed services police are not trained to regard domestic violence as a serious crime," the report said, calling for standardized training across the four services and beyond ranks, from generals to enlisted personnel.

About 10 years after she shot her abusive married man, Cynthia Eng has little religion that the war machine has changed enough to prevent nightmares like hers.

"It'due south simply non logical to expect them to," she said. "They're trained to search and destroy, non to exist social workers.

"At the first sign of domestic violence, they should telephone call in agencies outside of the military and tell the couple, 'You're going to get help–right at present.'"

Chris Lombardi is a New York-based gratis-lance writer, covering domestic and international human rights, electoral politics and equity issues.

For more than information, visit:

The Miles Foundation:
http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/milesfdn/myhomepage/

Survivors Have Activeness Confronting Abuse past Armed services Personnel:
http://staaamp.org/

Department of Defense Task Strength:
http://www.mfrc.calib.com/domestic_violence/defence.htm

The National Training Centre on Domestic and Sexual Violence:
http://www.ntcdsv.org/

For more information, visit the Women'south Army Corps in World State of war 2: http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/wac/index.htm

Our Story

A special, daily feature of Women'southward Enews during Women'southward History Month

(WOMENSENEWS)–1941. Rep. Edith Nourse Rogers, R-Mass., introduced a beak in Congress to constitute the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. As Globe War II raged across Europe and the Far East, Rogers was sure women would serve the impending U.Southward. war try and wanted them to have the same benefits as men in the service.

When Congress passed the legislation in May 1942, women did non get those equal benefits, but they did volunteer in large numbers.

In all, 350,000 women served in the war machine during Earth War Two, including four,000 African Americans. The world "auxiliary" was dropped in 1943 and the corps was integrated into the U.S. Army in 1978. –Glenda Crank Holste.