ROK Air Force NCO Commits Suicide After Making Sexual Harassment Complaint
Apparently the ROK service member was pressured by colleagues to reach a settlement with her harasser before committing suicide:
An Air Force officer has died in an apparent suicide after being sexually harassed by a colleague, officials said Tuesday.
In March, the female master sergeant stationed in the central city of Seosan was sexually harassed by the man surnamed Jang inside a car on their way back to the base after a private gathering that she was forced to attend, according to the officials.
She then reported the case to the authorities the following day, but the military allegedly failed to take appropriate steps to protect the victim.
Jang, as well as his family members and senior officers, had instead tried to cover up the case and persuade her to drop the complaint, according to the bereaved family members.
After taking two months off, she was transferred to another base by her application, but she was found dead at her residence inside the base late last month.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link.
Finding people who are good at killing people and breaking things does not often consist solely of people who are good at interpersonal relations.
The alleged harasser, if actually guilty, does not have the necessary self discipline to be a senior enlisted member of the ROK Armed Forces. And the fact that he, “as well as his family members and senior officers, had instead tried to cover up the case and persuade her to drop the complaint” appears to indicate the dude needs a court martial to clear his name. Or more likely bury him under 10 tons of self-inflicted pain.
The alleged victim, regardless of the truth of the allegation, was also not really suitable to be a senior NCO. I realize this may have been a traumatic incident. I also realize some people, “true believers”, are willing to commit suicide to achieve their aims. And if a peacetime event causes this much trauma, she would probably have gotten many killed in a war-time incident. Especially “sexual harassment” means everything from being called “sweetheart” to “attempted buggery”.
Maybe I’m being cold-blooded about this; but I really never have been a fan of men and women serving together. And it really too often ends up like this. And unchaperoned couples traveling at night after drinking more often ends up like this. In every country.
Perhaps the answer is to just ban cis-gendered men from the Army?
May the Lord comfort the bereaved family and friends.
And may truth and justice prevail.
setnaffa, I have to disagree with one of your points there.
It’s bad enough for the deceased NCO to be forced to attend a drinking party and be groped by her superior, but to have pretty much the entire leadership come down on her and force her to settle so that they can have a good day pretty much crosses a lot of lines.
They eventually transferred her to another Wing and just when you think things would settle down, her new squadron commander comes down hard on her and makes her life miserable. My guess is her previous leadership told her new squadron commander that she was a ‘problem servicewoman’ and told him to deal with her accordingly.
Yes she didn’t have to make her final choice but considering what she had gone through, I can’t blame her either.
However the bigger and worrying picture is that there seems to be an overall breakdown in discipline and sense of mission and duty among the ROK Armed Forces. The career officers and NCOs seem to be more concerned about their next paychecks, their pensions and guarding their ‘rice bowl’ than serving and defending the country and doing the right thing.
After years of being coddled, spoiled and getting all the expensive toys they asked for, it seems the ROK Armed Forces have become corrupt, fat, and lazy.
TOK, I hear you and understand what you’re saying. It’s the reason I believe women shouldn’t be in the Armed Forces of nations that allow what happened (i.e., all of them). But the same poor treatment of men who don’t “fit in” has been going on for a long time. I’ve seen it. We all have. “One [negative report] wipes out a thousand attaboys”, as they say.
That sounds far less compassionate than I feel; but the Military is neither a benevolent institution nor the proper place to shelter tender-hearted snowflakes. I recommend A Thunder of Drums(1961) to help illustrate my point. There’s also Rules of Engagement(2000) to drive the point home. The enemy is less than 50 miles north of Seoul and the DMZ and many tank barriers are down. No room for sentiment.
Still, the people who pressured her ought to be out on their ears without pensions, if not incarcerated as accessories to manslaughter. South Korea is not well-served by having “leadership” of that disreputable caliber.