DENVER POST
Betrayal In The Ranks
Wed Feb 4 00:19:22 2004
64.140.158.139

Betrayal In The Ranks
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,0,36%257E30137%257E,00.html

Thousands of women have been sexually assaulted in the United States military. Thousands more have been abused by their military husbands or boyfriends. And then they are victimized again.

This time, the women are betrayed by the military itself.

They are discouraged from reporting the crimes. Pressured to go easy on their attackers. Denied protection. Frustrated by a justice system that readily shields offenders from criminal punishment.

The women suffer for it.

Some cannot talk about what happened. They were killed by men whose violence was allowed to escalate. Other victims struggle with anger over a trusted system that betrayed them.

More than 50 women such as Beverly Kondel, Toni Walker and Iolanda Thompson, above from left, told The Denver Post their stories.

"They said they would order him not to talk to me, but I told them that that wouldn't stop bullets from hitting me," Walker says. "I felt the military abandoned me."
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