Army Secretary Criticizes the SHARP Program
Here is what the Army Secretary had to say about the SHARP program:
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“My preliminary review of the report, recent cases and recent media coverage, have hardened my belief that the Army’s SHARP program hasn’t achieved its mandate to eliminate sexual assaults and sexual harassment by creating a climate that respects the dignity of every member of the Army family,” McCarthy said in a video statement Wednesday afternoon.
Army leadership intends to also release an action plan to address the review’s recommendations when it’s released next month.
The Army’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention program, or SHARP, has been under scrutiny in recent months following the death of Spc. Vanessa Guillen, a Fort Hood soldier who prosecutors say was murdered in an armory on post by a fellow 3rd Cavalry Regiment trooper.
Guillen’s family said she had been sexually harassed by a fellow soldier prior to her death, but she didn’t report the incident for fear of retribution. Following those allegations, Army Forces Command sent a small team in June to specifically look at the SHARP program on Fort Hood.
Army Times
You can read more at the link, but the problem I see here is setting an unattainable goal. The Army will never eliminate SHARP incidents, just like it will never end theft, murder, assault, and other crimes in the ranks. Everyone who has ever served in the Army has experienced barracks thieves. What makes SHARP different is the politics involved with the issue. When have you ever heard a politician claim theft between soldiers needs to be ended?
What needs to be determined is if the system is allowing soldiers to report and seek investigations and ultimately punishment of those responsible. It is pretty clear that a large number of soldiers are reporting based on the numbers from the Pentagon, what is tricky is the punishment portion when you get into the he said, she said cases particularly when many of them involve alcohol.
This is the same problem that civilian courts have and no one is trying to blow up the civilian court system like politicians want to do with the military justice system.
Even in the past, when the Army was essentially all male and lived in Barracks there were cases of various types of harassment (not as much of a sexual nature one hopes).
If rules were enough, we would have no prisons.
This really falls on the NCOs to be policing their squads, platoons, companies, and battalions. If they cannot because of regulations, then there’s the place to start. If they cannot because of ability, then hire new ones. If they are the ones doing the harassing, then something like Danny Deever is called for.
In the meantime, a lot of talk and no action against the culprits.
Danny Deever is a poem about military punishment by Rudyard Kipling. It also describes the belief that any criminal in a unit was a disgrace to everyone else in that unit. That’s something that only the NCOs can really inspire. IMO, soldiers who don’t accept that ought to be separated — not just transferred — as being untrustworthy when the shooting starts.
The problem unfortunately is with some NCOs who are supposed to be in a position of trust are not to be trusted. My last unit AD some years ago before SHARP we had an E-6 who was leaving the military who worked hard to protect the young pretty girls in the platoon at the expense of the male soldiers since he was looking for a girlfriend after he left; while we had an E-7 in his 40s who was “persuaded” to marry a 19 year old private he was sleeping with so “he wouldn’t lose his retirement” Of course she shot through the ranks and was E-4 in barely a year. Odd she stayed in his platoon as well, generally doing nothing during a day other than keeping a chair warm. It was at Fort Hood so it was no surprise to me that the climate there is bad. The reporting needs to be outside the unit so soldiers don’t get “targeted” as “rats” or “snitches” Let them report, let CID come in and investigate as they would any other crimes without naming names. As far as the “good old days” when the barracks were mostly male, barracks thieves fell down in showers or fell in the barracks all by themselves and no one saw anything. their “friends” helped them up and helped them to the ER or sick call the next morning.
I didn’t see anything; but it was said that, in a certain town near a “Northern Tier” SAC base, a certain USAF Squadron CO and a certain SSGT (who IIRC had flown together in SEA)
beat upcounseled a moving-van driver whose load was missing boxes containing valuable coins, firearms, and other valuables. And said items were subsequently returned to said SSGT without involving local hospitals or police…Like I said, I didn’t see anything. I was asked to carry boxes into the house and was busy getting a cup of coffee after helping chop a hole in the “ice berm” laid by the snowplows so the bigger guys could carry in the washing machine without needing to lift it 3 feet up.
Again, I saw nothing; but by the time I went back outside, the items missing from the truck were being unloaded from the LTC’s station wagon and the truck driver had left…
if you can’t sleep your way to the top, you can lie your way to the top. False accusations abound, and once accused your career is done…
Fort Bliss reports 33 sexual assaults since Oct 1.
This from a S&S article on June 5th 2013. Leadership imposed a “stand-down” to focus on sexual assault training.
Looks as though the training succeeded.
https://www.stripes.com/news/us/fort-bliss-reports-33-sexual-assaults-since-oct-1-1.224389
Perverse incentives.
At present we have a system where there is little or nothing to lose by false accusation, and much to gain. I’ve seen it a lot….A lot a lot. There’s a one star right now I know very well who wouldn’t have made O-3 on merit alone.