Fort Leonard Wood battles sexual assault

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Feb. 3, 2004 -- New recruits march along in front of the basic training barracks at Ft. Leonard Wood


Fort Leonard Wood battles sexual assault
By Phillip O'Connor
Posted: Sunday, January 30, 2011 12:10 am

FORT LEONARD WOOD, MO. • Two days after she joined her military police unit, the 19-year-old private found herself drunk, sick and locked in a barracks bathroom where, she said, a soldier in her unit sexually assaulted her.

Less than three months before, on Christmas Day 2009, the same soldier used similar tactics to assault a 20-year-old woman new to the 988th Military Police Company, prosecutors alleged in a court-martial earlier this month.

Six years after the Pentagon committed to addressing sexual assault within the ranks, such cases remain a fixture in military courtrooms. Of 19 pending courts-martial at Fort Leonard Wood, eight involve sexual assaults by soldiers, most of them on other service members. In many cases, the circumstances are sadly familiar and often difficult to prosecute.

The victim and accused often know each other, and, in some cases, may have had a previous sexual relationship. Alcohol is usually involved.

"We have adults who are engaging up to a certain point in consensual behavior," said Lt. Col Jim Tripp, the fort's deputy staff judge advocate. "That's what makes it so difficult to prove. They go out, get drunk, they're alone and then the stories diverge."