Let's take a second and think about what makes America so great. The list could go on and on, starting with baseball, hotdogs, and most of all, freedom. I believe freedom is truly what America is all about. When I think of freedom, I think of our nation’s armed forces. They keep us Americans safe and sound, but the military itself might not be so safe and sound. Believe it or not, the military has a huge problem with the high amount of sexual assaults that happen. Through the years, the military has tried to make advances on stopping sexual assault in the military, but maybe it’s just not fast enough. We need to change or strengthen our policies in categorizes such as our officers, male victims, leaders, and academies to make our military as safe as I feel at night when I go to bed.

When I used to hear the saying “Army strong,”  I would think of all our nation's armed forces so strong that they might be invincible. Now as I hear this motto, I think of how the military might be turning this saying into a hazard for all of the personnel.  By saying that, I mean maybe some of the soldiers keep too much to themselves to be “strong.” After reading some sexual assault victims stories of people that used to be in the military, like Bob Hunter’s and Michael Bidwell’s on the Daily Campus that was published on March 28, 2017, and written by Claire Galvin, I realized that so many victims are told to keep quiet or don’t know anything but silence. Nowadays, the military is trying to stop that from happening, but we can’t neglect the one’s that still are. Which a lot of the time happens to be the males in these cases.

When people first think of sexual assault, they think of a woman getting raped by a man. Which is a complete stereotype, nor is it true in the slightest. Going back to Hunter and Bidwell who both dealt with these social norms and couldn’t find a way out at first. Bidwell was 6’2 and over 200 pounds. He thought he’d never have an issue with assault. He told Daily Campus that his assaulters told him if he tried to stop them or report it, that they would report that he was trying to rape them. The stereotype came into play here. If he tried to report it and they also did, who would they believe, the man or the two women? He later speaks out, like in this article, but he never reported it. Instances like these are why some of our uniformed are taking a stand.

All according to Targeted News Service on February 9, 2017, at the U.S. Army Fort Leonard Wood, the military police took a pledge to end harassment within its ranks. This all happened after Olivia Gatwood, sexual assault survivor, gave a very moving speech. After the speech, they were invited to take the sexual assault prevention pledge. The MP’s individually signed their own handprints that are all along the walls outside their classrooms. The handprints are in the color teal because it is the color that represents sexual assault awareness. It is extremely important for our uniformed to be taking actions like these. If more of them took pledges, this could help the issue of sexual assault. Everyday those MP’s walk down that hallway and get reminded of the pledge they took, which they will never forget it. Some of the uniformed are taking a stand, and now it’s time for the very highest personnel of the military to also take out his big guns.

In 2013, Donald Trump posted on twitter a message that stated, “What did these geniuses expect when they put men and women together?” Trump was referring to the high number of sexual assault cases in our military. I think if men and women are working together to defend our country, that doesn’t mean one should or gets to rape the other. The military has come such a far way now to do with gender equality and comments like these just are like taking two steps back and only one step forward. The 45th President of the United States needs to use his position to make a positive impact, and stop criticizing the people that are. Leaders have a huge impact on our lives. We look up to them as children, so let's make sure those impacts are positive for the future generation, especially the ones in our schools.

Sexual assault has increased in the naval and army academies. The Air Force academy’s numbers have fallen but still remain the highest of the three. According to NBC News on March 15, 2017, in the article “Sexual Assaults Increased at Two of the Three Military Academies,” there’s only 5 less assaults from the previous year. With all the academies combined, in the 2015-2016 school year, there were 86 sexual assaults reported. But this number is strictly what is reported. According to the Denver Post written on March 15, 2017, in the article “Reports of Sexual Assault on Rise at Navy, Army Academies,” a bunch of students didn’t file a report because they “didn’t think it was serious enough.“ We need to teach our students that all cases are serious. This is extremely important, otherwise think of all the assaulters that just get off the hook that then graduate to become officers in our US armed forces. I don’t think this is who we want leading our troops. If we teach them the seriousness of all attacks, we will have a safer military.

So in conclusion, the policies need to change in a lot of areas in the military. With our officers, we should be promoting strength in finding courage to speak out and not hold it in. Officers may be higher in rank, but their body itself isn’t valued higher than a lower rank soldier. We need to quit the social norms and do something for all the victims. Whereas with leaders, that are in power, need to use their power to help the cause instead of staying on the sidelines and making comments. Lastly, we need to create a safe environment in our schools. A quote from Olivia Gatwood, “We spend so much time teaching our daughter how not to be raped, but not enough time teaching our sons not to rape.” So maybe all we need to do is to teach our children not to rape. Then maybe into the future, using all these tactics, we will have a safe country, and we can keep the people that defend our country safe and sound as well.