What is the place of women in the military world especially when it is of the US? A country that boasts of providing equal status to women and men but its sheer shame on the part of the administration that instead of treating women as human beings, they treat them as mere commodities, and are sexually harassed just for the sake of being a part of the regiment and when they try to raise a voice against the rough treatment….they are ostracized, tagged as traitor which further leads to humiliation, and of course battering.

Suzanne Swift, the then twenty one year old Army Specialist, was arrested for showing her reluctance in going back to fight in Iraq. She served in Iraq for a year but decided she won’t return and went AWOL. Not only did she feel the war lacked purpose, Swift said her superiors repeatedly sexually harassed her while serving in Iraq.

This is what Sara, mother of Suzanne exposed, in an email interview with us. Read further…

1. Please give our readers, a brief biographical sketch about you and your daughter Suzanne.

Sara: I have always been a human rights activist locally. I am passionate about people and want everyone to be treated with dignity and respect. I have three children, Suzanne is my eldest child. I was raised on a commune with my parents and in the summers I would go live with my grandparents in St. Louis. So being an activist came naturally to me. And trusting the military also was second nature to me.

Suzanne is a beautiful 23 year old woman. She is currently serving in the United States Army. When she joined the military, at the age of 19 she was immediately shipped off to Iraq where she served honorably for one year as a Military Police Officer. Her job in Iraq was as a humvee driver doing combat patrol. She was not harassed or sexually abused until the first day of her deployment and she was shocked that her married platoon Sgt. propositioned her for sex. After suffering abuse by her command she returned home after a year in Iraq only to be sexually harassed again. 11 months after her return from Iraq the military wanted to send Suzanne again and at the last minute she had a breakdown and went absent with leave and did not deploy with her unit to Iraq for the second time.

Her unit, the 54th MP Company is now, September 2007, in Iraq for its third deployment.

2. Could you please tell us what happen to Suzanne? What happened when she went to Iraq and what followed that?

Sara: When Suzanne joined the military she was told by the military recruiter that if she did not want to go into combat then she needed to sign up for the military occupational specialty of a military Police Officer. The catch was then she would have to sign up for five years instead of the normal three. I asked her if she was ready to dedicate five years of her life to the military. She said the extra two years would be worth it if she did not have to be deployed to a combat zone. Immediately after her training she was deployed to Iraq with the 66th MP Company. As she was packing I asked her about contraception and she looked at me as if she was shocked and offended. “No one has sex on deployments, Mom.” and I let it go. When I was saying good bye to her before she was shipped out, I was sitting on her bunk crying. Her Platoon Sergeant came and told me, “Don’t worry Ma’am, we will take good care of your daughter.” Little did we know that he had already singled Suzanne out for his potential “Deployment girlfriend.” The first day in Kuwait Suzanne was heading off to shower and her platoon Sgt. was outside of her room and he said to her, “Swift, why you always looking at me like you want to f**** me?” Suzanne said she was so shocked, not only by his words but that her PLATOON Sgt., someone who she was totally intimidated why would say something like that to her. She replied, “Sgt., I think you have lost your mind.” Soon after this the platoon Sgt. gets Suzanne alone in a Humvee. She is driving and they have headsets on to communicate. There is one other person, but he is up above and can’t hear them. The Sgt. proceeds with his sexual advances towards to Suzanne, and she is even more scared now. He tells her that if they go through with having a sexual relationship she would have to keep it a secret and he might have to single her out for punishment so no one would know what was going on between them. Suzanne refused and told him that this was not going to happen. After that Sgt., Campbell did everything in his power to oppress her and make her look like a stupid and bad soldier.

Suzanne was very shaken by this and went and told her Equal Opportunity Officer what happened. He told her that he would talk to command and get back to her. He never did. This gave Suzanne a very clear message that she was alone and no one was going to back her up.

At the same time, Suzanne Squad leader, MLester is what I have always referred to him as, has really taken Suzanne under his wing. He has been telling her not to trust anyone. That all these soldiers just want to use her and that if anyone came onto her that she should tell him and he would take care of it. Anytime she was seen talking alone to another soldier he would question her about what they wanted and if they were trying to get into her pants. He built a real trust with her and she felt like he would be there for her. The first day when they arrived in Iraq, Sgt. MLester and Suzanne had a long talk by her barracks. He told her that his marriage was not good and disclosed many personal things to her. She reciprocated thinking he was an ally and someone she could talk to. Then abruptly he looks at her and says, “Swift, why have you been out here talking to me all this time?” and Suzanne replies, “I thought we were just talking, Sgt.” He grabs her by the back of the neck and shoves his tongue down her throat. Suzanne has told me that at this point she was scared to death. She thought MLester was gross and unattractive and he had been constantly showing her what happens to soldiers that do not follow orders from him: Shame, Pain and Humiliation. She thought whether she could avoid the punishment if she went along or if she just went along with it she would be safe from his harshness. She was coerced into a sexual relationship. It was a long three months of his using her. He made sure she had a room to herself and would come to her whenever he needed to. Sometimes drunk, but always violent. Suzanne did not know how to get out of it without the inevitable punishment and possible death of being alone in a combat zone. Then one night he asked her if when they got home she would be his girlfriend. She immediately replied that no she wouldn’t an she thought he was ugly and she hated him. There it was out on the table. And the table was turned upside down. He immediately stopped with the sex and started in with the punishment and humiliation that Suzanne feared. She was sabotaged, micromanaged, and written up for the slightest infraction, even those imagined by MLester. Rarely would he administer the punishments and counseling, however. He kept some distance so it would not raise suspicions. Suzanne was miserable. She recalls that every morning she would wake up saying this was the day she was going to tell, promising herself today was the day. Then each night became so disappointed in herself for not having the courage to tell.

3. Sara, why did Suzanne enlist herself in the military? Was it because of sheer adventure associated with the profession?

Sara: Suzanne had graduated from High School and was in a job she was not happy in. A military recruiter started talking to her and was really courting her to join the military. He was very smooth and convincing. He promised her college, job training, travel and if she signed up for 5 years to be a military police officer, she would not be deployed to a combat zone. We both believed him and I was at ease thinking that she would not be deployed. It never even crossed my mind that the recruiter would lie. My grandfather was a Colonel in the US Army and all I had ever known about military was integrity and honesty. I thought on some level the military would be a good experience for Suzanne.

4. You must be sorry she joined military, aren’t you?

Sara: My spiritual belief is that everything happens for a reason. I am so sorry she was hurt, that is the worst of it. I believe she joined for a higher purpose and all the reasons may not be revealed as of yet. Maybe because of what happened to her another young person will change their mind and not join the military. Hopefully the raised awareness because of Suzanne’s case will lead to some serious prevention work around military sexual assault.

5. Sara, could you please tell us something about the official punishments, which the authorities doled on her?

Sara: The official punishment was Suzanne was given a summary court-martial. AT the court martial she told her story. I was so proud of her. Despite everything she was stripped of all her rank and put into prison for 30 days. Now to some people this appeared to be a good deal. I do not agree. I do not believe that rape victims should be put in prison. What they did to Suzanne was a terrible injustice. They sent a 22 year old combat veteran who had been raped and had been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder to prison. Because of this sentence, Suzanne not only missed the holidays with her family, but missed the birth of her sister’s first baby. It was an incredibly hard time for our family to try and celebrate the holidays knowing Suzanne was sitting in prison. After everything she had been through, the Army treated her in a very dehumanizing and demoralizing manner. Through it all, Suzanne did not ask for clemency for anything but her rank. She wrote a letter asking that she be able to maintain her rank as Specialist. This was denied which just furthered the humiliation of Suzanne. The Army worked hard to make an example out of Suzanne. Report sex abuse in the military, go to jail.

6. How far have you reached in gaining justice for your daughter?

Sara: There has been no justice for Suzanne. There was a huge opportunity for the US military to do the right thing and let Suzanne have a medical discharge from the Army, but instead they re-traumatized her and treated her like a criminal. The only solace we gain from this ordeal is knowing that others who were raped in the military have found their voices after watching Suzanne speak out.

7. Sara, you have experienced the most harrowing incident of your life. What according to your experience is the life of women in defense services, I mean in military?

Sara: I really hope this is the most harrowing incident of my life. It has been one of the hardest things in my life, but the hardest buy far was when Suzanne was in Iraq and I knew what was going on and not being able to help her or save her from the MLester. That drove me into a very hard depression. I think that the whole mentality of the military is archaic in which the majority see women as objects and not competent. I think this is slowly changing but if you ask women in the military, the old saying still exists today that women in the military are either sluts, bitches or dykes, (lesbians).

8. What was the response from the government towards your daughter’s case?

Sara: There were many meetings with Congress people and Senators staff, they were all concerned but did nothing but make empty promises. They offered to help, but when it came down to them actually doing something, no one did anything to really help Suzanne. I cried and begged for them to intervene on Suzanne’s behalf. I called the offices in DC and the local offices and they just passed me on to someone else. In the end, they all stood by and watched her get stripped of her rank and go to prison.

9. In most of your writings, Sara, you have asserted that sexual abuse is a normal way of life in military world- you are also often critical of the war itself. What are your thoughts on the American invasion and occupation of Iraq?

Sara: I have lost faith in our government. I still love our country, but the greed and power mongering that this administration has been guilty of is horrendous. Do I believe Saddam Hussein was dangerous? Yes, I do. But I also believe that there are other ways of helping the Iraqi people other than destroying their country and killing millions of Iraqis people. I believe in peace. I think the United States was wrong to invade Iraq. I think that we should pull our troops out now and give aid to Iraq in the form of supporting the United Nations and help create the type of country and government that the Iraqi want to have. I know there is civil war there, but it is not our business.

10. Any message you’d like to give to the women across the globe?

Sara: Women are more powerful than we can comprehend. We have the most crucial role in the world, the role of the giver of life. Our gender has got to stop the war machine that are killing our children and start working on concrete ways to save our planet. There are many questions to be asked, but as women I know we have the answers to all of the world’s problems. Love, peace and compassion will save the day. Peace.