Final punishment: As Wisconsin National Guard officer Megan Plunkett took steps to leave the Guard after she said she was sexually assaulted three times, officials tried to revoke her benefits
Madison.com
Katelyn Ferral
May 11, 2019
“I was like, ‘I’m out, I just want to be left alone.’ I don’t want to cause more problems and then he came at me with fraternization. Are you ... kidding me?” she said. “He… assaulted me and how dare they accuse me of fraternization without asking me what happened?”
Eight months after the Wisconsin Army National Guard finished its investigations into 1st Lt. Megan Plunkett’s sexual assault claims, they tried to kick her out.
They did so even though Plunkett was already making her own way out. She was going through a medical discharge for post-traumatic stress disorder connected to alleged sexual assaults by two different men in two different units she served in.
She was not actively training at that time but was having a consensual relationship with an enlisted soldier in her unit. After the relationship ended, Plunkett said that man also sexually assaulted her. As it did in the first two cases, the Guard said her allegations were unsubstantiated, but they went one step further than that, finding Plunkett guilty of “fraternization.” In the military, officers are forbidden to have sexual relationships with enlisted soldiers.
As of today, Plunkett has won some measure of vindication from other agencies. A panel of out-of-state Army officers ultimately rejected the Guard's attempt to strip her benefits and status, though that ruling is not yet final. Separately, the Veterans Administration awarded her full service-connected disability compensation and medical benefits for PTSD, which they determined was caused by military sexual trauma she experienced in the Wisconsin Army National Guard.
'Failure to Protect'
This week, the Cap Times is publishing “Failure to Protect,” a four-part investigation by reporter Katelyn Ferral into the Wisconsin Army National Guard and its treatment of soldiers who are sexually abused in its service. The series is centered on 1st Lt. Megan Plunkett, a soldier who says she was sexually assaulted by three different Guard colleagues over the course of three years.
After she brought those allegations forward, the Guard not only decided that they were unsubstantiated, but took multiple steps to punish her. Plunkett eventually brought her story to the Cap Times, and after a four-month investigation including access to extensive records of a type rarely available to the public, we are sharing her story with you. It is alarming, nuanced and sometimes graphic, but it is important to hear, coming amidst growing concern among government officials in Wisconsin and nationally about the number of military sexual abuse victims and their treatment.
Part one focused on Plunkett’s allegations, the Guard’s responses and also explains its procedures for responding to sexual assault allegations.
Part two took a close look at a yearlong, internal Guard investigation into Plunkett’s first unit, which concluded that it had a longstanding culture of sexual misconduct.
Part three examined the phenomenon of “military sexual trauma” as well as Plunkett’s often frustrating efforts to maintain consistent medical care and legal representation.
Part four (below) describes the Guard’s final — and at this point, unsuccessful — effort to strip Plunkett of military benefits even after she was in the process of getting a discharge for medical reasons.
read more here
Early this morning I was reading "Another View: We can’t ignore veterans and PTSD" and this part pretty much sums up how useless all of these stunts are.
Tom Voss and Anthony Anderson, two Iraq War veterans suffering from depression and suicidal ideation following deployments in Iraq, decided to take a 2,700-mile walk across America as a way to confront their inner pain, according to the flyer for their award-winning film “Almost Sunrise” (almostsunrise@filmsprout.org). Last week, along with other veterans, I viewed the film at North Shore Community College in Danvers, Mass., where I had served as president for 13 years helping build a program that serves upwards of 400 veteran students today. The film records, after they conclude their hike, their subsequent treatment involving silence and meditation, resulting in their self-discovery of the cause of their pain, severe guilt over actions they had taken that affronted their morale self-expectations. In Tom’s case, it was leaving a civilian Iraqi wounded and dying on the side of the road. For me, it was leaving behind an orphanage full of Vietnamese Americans, products of unions between Vietnamese and American soldiers when my unit was removed from the Mekong Delta in 1969. I can relate.
All this awareness raising has not made anyone aware of the reasons they have to live. Most still do not have a clue that PTSD has changed how they are but has not changed who they are.
How they are makes them think the way they used to be is gone forever. Under that pain, it is all still there. They just have to use the same dedication to do their jobs as they do to the job of healing and helping others heal as well. After all, isn't that what their jobs were all about in the first place? Saving lives? What better place to start than with their own so they can turn around and lead others to heal by example?
They do not know the difference between PTSD caused by profession and the type civilians get.
AbstractFirst responders, including military health care workers, public
health service workers, and state, local, and volunteer first responders
serve an important role in protecting our nation’s citizenry in
the aftermath of disaster. Protecting our nation’s health is a vital
part of preserving national security and the continuity of critical national
functions. However, public health and public safety workers
experience a broad range of health and mental health consequences
as a result of work-related exposures to natural or man-made disasters.
This chapter reviews recent epidemiologic studies that broaden
our understanding of the range of health and mental health consequences
for first responders. Evidence-based psychopharmacologic
and psychotherapeutic interventions for posttraumatic distress reactions
and psychiatric disorders are outlined.
Civilians can get hit by PTSD from one event. Now think of how many events all of the above experience throughout their career. Now think about the other fact that far too many of them forget the basic reason they wanted to do those jobs knowing that it could cost them their lives.
What makes their PTSD different and deeper than what civilians get is they willing risk it it all for the sake of other people. They have a deeper level of emotional ability to allow them to do that and that is also why they get hit harder than others. Plus, it is the biggest reason they are so unwilling to ask for help from anyone.
These men and women are the ones others depend on. Or that is the way they see themselves. The original basis actually demands they ask for help considering they have no problem depending on those they serve with to help keep them alive doing those jobs topped off being willing to pay any price in order to return the favor.
So why haven't they gotten that message? Why haven't they gotten any of the messages they really need to hear loud and clear?
We're too busy reading about raising awareness stunts while no one can actually explain who they are trying to make aware of the fact veterans, Police Officers, Firefighters and EMTs are killing themselves. Yep, guess along with leaving out the current Military Suicides on all the awareness, they forgot about all the other jobs.
