Corps wants an end to sex assaults – now

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Marines take a break by their vehicles as a supply convoy stops to unload at Combat Outpost Ellis in Iraq. New initiatives are being implemented to promote great respect for women in the Corps.


Corps wants an end to sex assaults – now
By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Dec 28, 2009 7:19:04 EST

With reported sex assaults in the Marine Corps up 40 percent since 2007, top service officials have ordered a crackdown to stop all forms of crude and inappropriate behavior, and Marines of every rank will be enlisted to help.

The push will include new training for all Marines beginning early in 2010, but it will go far beyond that, said Sgt. Maj. Carlton Kent, the service’s top enlisted adviser. Marines of all ranks will be told to think twice before sharing off-color jokes and engaging in crude behavior that experts say can help foster an environment ripe for sexual harassment and assaults to occur. No new disciplinary system will be put in place, but criminal charges and nonjudicial punishments will be pursued aggressively.

“Zero tolerance on sexual assault is the message,” Kent said. “You could look at a room of 100 female Marines, and you would see that most of them have been sexually assaulted in one way, shape or form, and we can’t tolerate that.”

The crackdown has support at the highest levels of the service, with Commandant Gen. James Conway, Assistant Commandant Gen. James Amos and Kent all speaking on the issue at a conference for senior enlisted Marines held Dec. 15-16 in Washington.

In September, Conway said he wanted drill instructors to take a lead in training Marines to prevent sex assaults after hearing that Marines interviewed by investigators said attitudes contributing to the problem sometimes take hold during a service member’s earliest days as a recruit.


Rest of article at; http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/12/marine_sex_assaults_122809w/