Suris told a seminar at the Dallas V.A. Medical Center she surveyed nearly 300 women vets using V.A. Services in North Texas. 67 percent were harassed while on active duty. The results Suris got in her study compare to an earlier national V.A. survey that found 23 percent were sexually assaulted and 55 percent harassed. Suris learned why more active duty women don't report rape. And many of them choose to keep their careers.
Cases stretch through the ranks.
Investigators found this summer that the Army's highest ranking woman, Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, had been sexually harassed by a male general. Evelina Ruth of Cedar Hill says a Marine Corps recruiter raped her when she joined at the age of 17. She never told anyone. I was worried what others were going to say, what they were going to think about me, whether I was telling the truth or not. I was looking at the situation because this man was in a position of authority in the job role that he played on his job.