Transcript
My trauma was military sexual trauma.
I joined the military when I was 17 and a half.
When I was 18, I was stationed in Germany
and there was a Sergeant who had helped me
with my paychecks one day.
I had been in Germany for a week and later that evening,
I saw him at a club and he said, "Come here, Private.
I need to talk to you about your paychecks," so I followed him.
And there he assaulted me, he raped me and tried to dispose
of me like a piece of garbage
and I was injured in the process.
And when I sought help medically
and psychologically the very next day, that night,
I was just so traumatized, I don't think I even spoke
to another human being.
I just got back to the barracks as fast as I could.
No one had ever talked to me about what to do if something
like that had happened so I really didn't know.
I just went into fight or flight mode and I flew.
So, I ended up reporting it the next day and unfortunately,
this man was a three year Veteran
to this particular small base in Germany and the people that were
in my very small unit were his friends
and he had a pregnant wife so nobody believed me.
They said, "Don't hang out with her.
She is a trouble maker.
She'll say that you raped her."
So I was ostracized almost from the get-go
and it was extremely difficult for me to trust anybody.