{"id":56603,"date":"2019-03-07T10:14:55","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T10:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/?p=56603"},"modified":"2019-03-07T10:14:56","modified_gmt":"2019-03-07T10:14:56","slug":"us-senator-mcsally-former-air-force-pilot-says-officer-raped-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/us-senator-mcsally-former-air-force-pilot-says-officer-raped-her\/","title":{"rendered":"US Senator McSally, former Air Force pilot, says officer raped her"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Senator Martha McSally, the first female Air Force fighter \npilot to fly in combat, said Wednesday that she was sexually assaulted \nby a superior officer, and later, when she tried to talk about it to \nmilitary officials, she \u201cfelt like the system was raping me all over \nagain.\u201d<\/strong>

The Arizona Republican, a 26-year military \nveteran, made the disclosure at a Senate hearing on the military\u2019s \nefforts to prevent sexual assaults and improve the response when they \noccur. Lawmakers also heard from other service members who spoke of \nbeing sexually assaulted and humiliated while serving their country.

McSally\n said she did not report being raped because she did not trust the \nsystem, and she said she was ashamed and confused. She said she was \nimpressed and grateful to the survivors who came forward to help change \nthe system. She was in the ninth class at the Air Force Academy to allow\n women, and said sexual harassment and assault were prevalent. Victims \nmostly suffered in silence, she said.

\u201cI\u2019m deeply affected by \nthat testimony,\u201d said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, who has pushed \nstrongly for changes. At a break, McSally hugged others who were \nappearing before the committee, including a West Point graduate who \ndetailed being raped by her commander.

\u201cThe criminal actions \nreported today by Senator McSally violate every part of what it means to\n be an Airman,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cAnd we stand behind her and \nall victims of sexual assault. We are steadfast in our commitment to \neliminate this reprehensible behavior and breach of trust in our ranks.\u201d

In\n her remarks, McSally did not go into much detail. She did not say \nwhether her assaults happened at the academy or during active duty. She \ndidn\u2019t name any names. She focused on the need for accountability at the\n commander level and down, and the improvements she\u2019s already seen in \nthe system.

McSally stayed silent for years. But later, as she \nwatched the military grapple with how to handle sexual assaults, she \nfelt like she should speak out.McSally\u2019s revelation comes not long after\n Sen. Joni Ernst , R-Iowa, detailed her own abuse and assault, and at a \ntime of increased awareness over the problem of harassment and assault \nin the armed forces and the larger MeToo movement that roiled Hollywood \nand major corporations.
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McSally said she shares\n in the disgust of the failures of the military system and many \ncommanders who haven\u2019t addressed the problems of sexual misconduct. She \nsaid the public must demand that higher-ranking officials be part of the\n solution, setting the tone for their officers.

\u201cWe have come a \nlong way to stop military sexual assault, but we still have a long way \nto go,\u201d the senator said. \u201cIt took many years and too many lives \nruined.\u201d

Defense officials have argued that an increase in \nreported assaults reflects a greater willingness to report attacks, \nrather than indicating assaults are rising. Sexual assaults are a highly\n underreported crime, both in the military and across society. Greater \nreporting, they argue, shows there is more confidence in the reporting \nsystem and greater comfort with the support for victims.

The \nsenator told The Wall Street Journal last year that she had been \nsexually abused as a teenager by her high school track coach. She said \nthe coach took advantage of her through \u201cemotional manipulation\u201d because\n her father had died. He denied the allegations.

McSally served \nin the Air Force from 1988 until 2010 and rose to the rank of colonel \nbefore entering politics. She deployed six times to the Middle East and \nAfghanistan, flying 325 combat hours and earning a Bronze Star and six \nair medals. She was also the first woman to command a fighter squadron.

McSally,\n who had worked as a national security aide for Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., \nwas elected to the House in 2014 and served two terms.

She was \nappointed by Gov. Doug Ducey, R-Ariz., in December to replace the late \nGOP Sen. John McCain after she narrowly lost last year\u2019s race for \nArizona\u2019s other Senate seat to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senator Martha McSally, the first female Air Force fighter pilot to fly in combat, said Wednesday that she was sexually assaulted by a superior officer, and later, when she tried to talk about it to military officials, she \u201cfelt like the system was raping me all over again.\u201d The Arizona Republican, a 26-year military veteran, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56605,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56603\/revisions\/56605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}