Sad But True
USFK Command Sergeant Major Barry Wheeler has a message for all NCOs in Korea:
Noncommissioned officers commit the majority of sexual assaults in the military, and that is “not OK,†said the senior enlisted service member in South Korea. Worse, the NCOs are assaulting the people they’re supposed to lead, U.S. Forces Korea Command Sgt. Maj. Barry Wheeler said during an hour long radio program Friday.
“My message to NCOs: I don’t care what service you’re in, knock it off,†he said. “You better be protecting that person’s integrity and taking care of them and making sure they have a safe place to live and not taking advantage of them.â€
It is a sad but true fact that NCOs are committing the majority of sexual assaults. Here is the main reason:
Wheeler said sexual assaults are “usually associated … I’m sad to say, with an overconsumption of alcohol, where one of the two, if not both, have made a poor decision to continue to drink.â€
The alcohol culture here in Korea definitely is a major contributor to the sexual assaults. However, there are a few other dynamics at play also. Here in Korea everybody lives together in close quarters in the barracks. Thus fraternizing between NCOs and soldiers is much more common here than compared to being stationed in the US. Back in the states the NCOs usually live off post and are married.
Plus you have soldiers being promoted to the sergeant rank to quickly now. Many times soldiers are getting promoted to E5 with 3 years of service. Young NCOs are not likely to hang out with NCOs that are much older than him/her and decides to hang out with old E4 and E3 buddies who are in their same age group instead. This causes them mentally to not make that transition from a soldier to a leader which an NCO is expected to be.
The over consumption of alcohol, close quarters in the barracks, and immature NCOs is what is causing this problem. How to stop it? Well ruthlessly stopping fraternizing between soldiers and NCOs and giving soldiers other options besides going to the “ville” and getting smashed is a place to start to end the overconsumption of alcohol culture here.
I have always felt that the “villes” around the camps here in 2ID are treated like a babysitting service for the Army here. Go to the ville, do what you want, don’t bother the Koreans outside the ville, what happens in the ville stays in the ville, and be back to work on Monday. The ville promotes alcohol abuse and sex, so why are people surprised this is carried over to the barracks?
If I had my way I would put the ville off limits at night to underage drinkers and any club that had foreign national women working in it would be put off limits because we all know they aren’t there to be cheap labor to sweep the floors. By getting the high risk and impressionable younger soldiers out of the ville this prevents alcohol and sex from being thrown in their face and will in turn cause them to seek other forms of entertainment. Plus getting the foreign nationals out of the ville would greatly curb human trafficking and prostitution.
These changes would cause the villes to have to change their business models to be more like US style clubs than relying on cheap beer and scantly clad foreign national “juicy girls” to make money. I think this change in culture in the ville will directly change the culture in the barracks that leads to sexual assaults.
Why doesn’t the Army do the things I recommend? Well then the Army would have to find real alternative activities for the younger soldiers to do besides going to the ville. It is much easier to let the ville babysit them during the weekend instead.
Anyone got any better ideas because just telling them to “knock it off” isn’t going to stop this problem?
The reason we have so much sex in the barracks today is because of the curfew.
Every night at an hour before curfew time, you've got people downrange binge drinking because they know they have to be on post in an hour; guys trying to "hook-up" at the last minute so they can score in a hotel room; said guys fighting with other guys over decreasing number of available females; and everyone scrambling to get back on post by curfew time.
End result is a bunch of excited, drunk, horny, pissed-off Soldiers (male AND female) suddenly finding themselves in the barracks at 0130.
Solutions to this dastardly problem? "Knock it off." Nice to think "Make it so" but this will never happen. All the training and feel good, joy-joy prevention about PHT, alcohol for those who wish to imbibe, and the "queen for a year syndrome" makes for one sexual assault after another. I've pulled CP eleven (11) times in the past year along with the many visits to a few establishments and know first hand that a horny GI (male and female) will find someone to scratch that itch. A hand-badge now and again will only last so long. Oh yeah; think politics, put the ville off-limits and the KNs will freak.
Back to reality: Sex and alcohol in place that “gasp†promotes it in many instances? Sarcasm aside, for every instance of bona-fide sexual assault that a unit has, the Battalion Commander needs to put all activities “alcohol-free†for thirty days (30) minimum to begin with. Then proceed to harsher measures of varying and increasing length of time so the company has time to reflect. All soldiers, officer and enlisted, must abide or face UCMJ action. No free tickets to any soldier arriving to that unit either.
Bona-fide means that the lady didn’t have second thoughts the day after (drinking also) and decide to report it as such. Guys; unless you want to go back to the “little lady†you need to step up to the plate too. Sexual assault goes both ways. The farce of it being only male on female is absurd. On another level you better be wary of male on male and female on female.
How will this help lower sexual assault? Taking alcohol out of the equation puts the possible offender in the right state of mind. Sobriety for someone who can’t act like an adult after a few drinks will hopefully prevent an incident. In time it will also help weed out the truly degenerate individual who we could all do with-out.
Something’s bothering me. I went back to the article and re-read it again. My first reply took less than thirty seconds (30) to complete. I knew what had stopped a lot of the fighting between soldiers and KNs, soldier to soldier, let alone sexual assault. Maturity and sex, what about this dynamic?
A Specialist when promoted to Corporal / Sergeant aspires to all of those qualities that ensure the NCO Corps will soldier on to complete all missions as required. Sadly this only completes one half of the equation.
The fact of enlistments not reaching DOD goals and the need for competent NCOs has brought lowering standards and automatic promotions. The lowering of standards and automatic promotions has brought a two-fold fallacy of what is right. Fallacy one is the soldier has the time in service but lacks leadership qualities. Fallacy two is the soldier lacks the technical know-how to accomplish the mission, let alone developed the leadership traits required. Magically they make the cut.
Old fogy alert – I don’t know how I did it but when faced with DS/DS my NCOs instilled the instinct of Army Right by the Book versus Army Wrong. The unknowing answer and acid test of all they had to teach proved a successful campaign (I’m here to talk about it).
As I am the teacher and this generation learns from both DS/DS and OIF. My true recommendation for promotion is soiled by those who feel some magic time in service equals the all-knowing grandeur of a Viet-Nam era promotion system. I struggle to know if I have done enough.
From the trenches, policy will only benefit those who truly deserve it and in addition those who quasi made-it. The system is starting to show a strain of a material failure. Continue and take the responsibility. The maturity of a soldier in regards to sexual assault equals the Leaderships ability to stand-up and say, “This soldier is not ready.†NCOs will always be held accountable for soldiers. NCOs must stand together and say this soldier is not ready.
From my first reply I do not change my action for sexual assault but hope to inform leaders of 8th Army that reality of the ville versus immaturity of younger NCOs can be curbed.
It seems to me most of the "fixes" you advocate are superficial at best. It ignores the real issue which is the problems that are created when you have Soldiers dating Soldiers. That is a direct result of the increased numbers of women in the force today. Folks like me who have always opposed that , are left saying "We told you so".
Why put the villes off limits? That is a Korean problem with a Korean solution. Fix the poverty that drives women to prostituion and women will not enter the profession. Till then I subscribe to the theory that there is something hypocritical about a Soldier (or Sailor) being able to get anothe Soldier pregnant with no problems, but a guy can't go out and get a quickie with a condom?
The real issue is does conduct get in the way? These types of assaults do because they undemine military discipline and cannot be tolerated. But how many times has the Army (or the Navy) created the preconditions that allow the types of fraternization to occur. All hands clubs are one example I can think of.
Even if you close the villes, all folks will do is find other alternatives. Until a culture is formed that says Soldiers don't date Soldiers, this is going to remain a problem……
I'm not saying close the villes, I'm saying don't let underage people in the ville. Why should underage soldiers be in the ville at night if they are not old enough to drink? Currently they are allowed to go into these clubs as long as they don't drink but a bunch of them get busted every weekend for underage drinking plus the Army is creating conditions that causes them to become familar and dependent on alcohol at a young age.
Also in Korea USFK tends to get blamed for human trafficking and prostitution problem here. If USFK said that soldiers could not go to clubs with Phillipinos and Russians in them than that would solve the problem. The buck couldn't get passed onto USFK for what is primarily a Korean problem but USFK has to react when Fox, NBC, etc. blame them for human trafficking in Korea. So currently we have a half solution. We severely punish the soldiers for human trafficking and alcohol offenses that often times ruin their careers and extreme cases their lives but we will continue to create conditions that promote this activity to keep the Korean business owners happy.
A lot of the responses to the problem that I've read are talking about sex, but not much about sexual assault. The problem isn't that men and women are having sex, but that soldiers, particularly NCOs, are raping or assaulting other soldiers.
I'm not a soldier, so I don't know the demographics of the American forces in Korea, but I'm guessing there are a fair share more enlisted men than NCO's. That begs the question of why the majority of sexual assaults and rapes are being committed by a minority of the soldiers. If alchohol was the cause, then you would assume that sexual assault would be highest in proportion to which class was drinking. The problem seems to be in leadership, not among the enlisted, but the NCO's. I think the best way to fix this is start punishing the NCO's immediate supervisors. Once you start placing black marks on their records, they will start taking sexual assault seriously.
The military has repeatedly refused to discuss sexism in the ranks. Now they're blaming sexual assault on alcohol, not on the guy doing the drinking and the raping. Does it ever occur to them that they're giving these guys an out? He can just blame it on alcohol, not himself, and none of the guys around him have to question whether having a contemptuous attitude toward women will lead to having a contemptuous attitude toward a woman's right not to be raped.
I've attended Army rape workshops directed at women. Women aren't the ones doing the raping; why don't they have a workshop directed at men instead?
Yeah, some jerk is going to pop up and go, But men get raped too. Yeah, by other men. Same problem, then, isn't it? If you want to end rape, effectively you have to target those who form the overwhelming majority of the offenders—98%, according to the US DOJ.
This is bull. With the top guy blaming alcohol, he's guaranteed more drinking rather than less, and given an alibi to every would-be rapist out there.
Second thoughts the next day? What sexist bullshit.
Rapists aren't degenerates. They're helped along by good ole boys who think that the 'little lady' had 'second thooghts' the next day when they didn't listen to her the night before in the first place—or they didn't ask.
Rapists are normal guys. They rape at parties, in homes, in dorms, and in Army barracks. In every case, they've got buddies who blame it on everything but them. For example, they blame it on alcohol.
Talking about female on male is bullshit, especially in a macho organization like the Army. You can't even talk about rape without using sexist cliche after sexist cliche—what do you think? What do you tell a male rape victim? That he should've laid back and enjoyed it?
Rape in the miltary features overwhelmingly male offenders and an astonishing amount of ignorance about sexual assault. YOu can't end the sexual assaults before you end the ignorance. Saying victims have second thoughts the next day is classic ignorance.
What does this have to do with rape, exactly?
Many of the same sorts of problems occurred in Germany in the 70's (alcohol abuse). However, legal prostitution existed (still exists) in Germany (though only in strictly controlled and policed areas).
So (presumably) that served as somewhat of an outlet. (I don't know for sure as I didn't patronize such services myself; did hear some anecdotal evidence for this from the NCO's however).
The drastic ramp-up in the numbers of women in the Army had just occurred (Carter administration); I remember hearing some stories about "sex parties" in one barracks of another unit. Of course such stories by the time they reached my ears were hearsay and so subject to exaggeration.
I remember another story about a female soldier elsewhere on post who would arrange to meet fellow soldiers off post at a hotel; she was well paid for her services, had set aside quite a nest egg. Again this was strictly hearsay evidence but the fact that even a "square" like me got to hear these stories reflects the fact that if you put hundreds of men together with only limited access to women, then it's going to create a tension that has to get resolved somehow.
Particularly if you send young soldiers who don't speak the language away from home for long periods of time (think you've got it bad? USAREUR was sending first termers straight out of AIT to Germany then for 3 year tours; after a while I got to where I could almost predict which new soldiers were going to be a problem).
You didn't discuss numbers (of NCO sexual assaults on female soldiers). Presumably if there was a crisis situation threatening unit effectiveness, the CSM wouldn't be merely giving a general admonition to the command as a whole.
Your suggested corrective measures are adequate for a short time period (say, a battalion in Korea for a month on maneuvers). But, if put in effect for a whole year tour they will be perceived as an injustice.
Many, probably most young soldiers are going to seek out excitement, women and drink, in some cases if only in order to fit in with their peers. There's only so much that ping-pong, college classes, basketball, and videos can do to subsitute for companionship with the opposite sex while having a few drinks (for a lot of people).
The only real permanent solution IMO is to bring the vast majority of the line troops home. (As you know, I favor this for a lot of other reasons too. At a fundamental level, every time I think about this, I still can't believe that after 53 years and the full recovery of the ROK from the war that we haven't done this a long time ago).
If it's still considered necessary to provide the DPRK with the image of the ability of the US to reinforce the ROK in a crisis, combat units can rotate into base camps in ROK (maintained by skeleton permanent party contingents) for a month or two during the year for maneuvers, then leave again.
Presumably this would cause the clubs nearby to such camps to go out of business; during these short rotations, if drinking is done after hours at times and places authorized by the chain of command, in a controlled atmosphere "on post", then that would cut down on the incidents.
The old Army rule was that when somebody was promoted to NCO rank he was transferred to another unit (to prevent this problem of having to be the boss of your former buddies).
I don't know what to do about male soldiers forcing themselves on female ones except to enforce Army rules and regulations as rigourously as possible. I would guess drinking is involved in the majority of these incidents. Even then, if alcohol is involved and the female is perceived as being "free and easy", then inevitably some male is going to get excited and go too far; only thing to do is make an example of him with disciplinary measures.
The culture of easy sexuality pervades our society now; just look at movies, TV, advertising. I'm old enough to remember how different this is from US society about 40 years ago. Young people are saturated with these images now and think they're missing out on something, so they get a few drinks in them and there go the inhibitions. Only way to cut down on it is with solid unit cohesion where the NCO's live separately from the troops, go out together in groups, some of the senior ones take it upon themselves to look after the junior ones ("designated driver").
Like you say, younger NCO's are going to want to hang out with guys their own age but in a temporary situation (such as a deployment for maneuvers) such control can be done as a temporary measure for a short time.
The other non-hypocritical solution is to legalize and control prostitution under US military control. I remember reading about how Patton in North Africa privately expressed envy over the French Army's ability to do this, but he knew it was unthinkable of course to even think of proposing out loud that the American Army adopt similar pollicies.
This was 60 years ago, yet I'm sure that such an idea is still unthinkable with both the US and ROK publics (and much of the US officer corps too). Yet, still everybody knows that illegal prostitution is going on all the time and all around us, but chooses to pretend otherwise.
So, if you want to end the problem of the "ville" then bring the troops home. Or restrict everyone to base for their year tour, but of course this would be perceived as an drastic overreaction and cause morale to plummet, so that's not going to happen.
Of course I have no illusions that any of my suggestions will happen either. ROK can be glad I'm not the temporary dictator of the US; you guys would be out of there and back on one of these stateside bases that the BRAC commission wants to close.
The Army is focusing on alcohol consumption leading to sexual assaults because I have never seen a sexual assault on the blotter report that did not involve alcohol. Is it an excuse? Of course not and the Army agressively prosecutes and punishes these guys. Yes male on male sexual also happens. I read one report where a guy "teabagged" a fellow soldier as a prank. That person got 18 months in jail for that prank. So the Army is not trying to cover it up. They are agressively prosecuting people to send a message. However, I think more can be done here in Korea to stop the barracks culture that leads to sexual assault by cleaning up the ville culture that promotes the alcohol abuse and sexism that leads to the assaults in the first place.