{"id":52860,"date":"2020-07-07T18:13:08","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T18:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/07\/07\/the-unbearable-cost-of-losing-the-silent-war-within-our-military\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T07:39:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T07:39:29","slug":"the-unbearable-cost-of-losing-the-silent-war-within-our-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/opinion\/commentary\/2020\/07\/07\/the-unbearable-cost-of-losing-the-silent-war-within-our-military\/","title":{"rendered":"The unbearable cost of losing the silent war within our military"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When young people join the military, they join to fight America\u2019s enemies. When the oath they take reads \u201cagainst all enemies foreign and domestic,\u201d none thought the domestic enemy would be someone in their chain of command. For those who are women, they certainly never thought the enemy would share the same gender much less the uniform. But when Lt. Col. Betsy Schoeller<\/a>, who serves in the Wisconsin Air Guard, posted on Facebook that \u201c[s]exual harassment is the price of admission for women into the good ole boy club,\u201d she exposed the depth of the problem. For far too many women veterans, however, pointing this out is as useless as taking a thermometer to the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before she mysteriously disappeared, 20-year-old U.S. Army Spc. Vanessa Guill\u00e9n reportedly told her family and friends that she was being sexually harassed by someone in her command<\/a>. However, her command has concluded thus far that no link exists between her death and a sexual harassment<\/a> committed by one of her superiors. This comes as no surprise to victims of sexual assault who\u2019d seen the \u201cabsence of evidence is evidence of absence\u201d standard applied more often than not. This will remain a problem until sexual predators begin confessing and turning themselves in, which isn\u2019t likely. <\/p>\n\n\n\t