‘I, Too, Was a Survivor’

From The New York Times:

“Later in my career, as the military grappled with scandals and their wholly inadequate responses, I felt the need to let some people know I, too, was a survivor,” Ms. McSally said. “I was horrified at how my attempt to share generally my experiences were handled. I almost separated from the Air Force at 18 years over my despair. “Like many victims, I felt like the system was raping me all over again,” she went on. “But I didn’t quit. I decided to stay and continue to serve and fight and lead.”

And then, the woman who said she was raped by the system said that the same system should continue to handle cases such as hers. She said that she was opposed to Senate legislation to take the prosecution of sexual assault cases out of the hands of the military chain of command, endangering the bill’s prospects and confounding other sexual assault victims.

At a news conference on Thursday outside Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, she told reporters that she would press defense officials to come up with reforms for dealing with sexual assaults within the ranks and would herself sit on a new Pentagon task force on the issue. (Read more.)