On Tuesday a former Marine shared his story of sexual assault in the military and his attempted suicide that followed. He came to Redstone Arsenal for the first day of their sexual assault awareness month.
More military women are sexually assaulted than men, but the Defense Department reports more than one thousand men are also victims who reported abuse in 2017. Retired Marine Jeremiah Arbogast is a survivor, but he almost didn’t survive.
Arbogast isn’t in a wheelchair because of a combat injury. The root of his scars trace back to when he was a young soldier drugged and sexually assaulted by a senior officer.
“I just could not move on with my life and I was just stuck in neutral and I was dealing with the sexual assault constantly, every day, nightmares,” he said.
Arbogast tried to take his own life. He ended up shooting through his spine and and is now partially paralyzed.
Arbogast’s attacker was discharged but saw no jail time. Today Arbogast advocates for victims and has even testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
But the initial decision to come forward was a hard one.
“They think that just because you’re sexually assaulted that means you’re gay,” he said. “It has no aspect on orientation or anything.”
Thirteen percent more military women reported sexual assault between 2017 and 2016, according to the Defense Department. For men there was no increase in reports.
Arbogast says military members must be more aware of the signs, know what can happen, and be unafraid to speak out.
“Come forward, talk about it,” Arbogast said. “Because when you let things boil up things like what I did to me happen. But if you talk about it, it liberates you. Don’t give up, keep pushing forward, talk about it, make awareness of it, and ultimately take care of yourself.”
Activities are going on throughout the month on the arsen to bring awareness to sexual assault, but Arbogast belives it will take more than one month of talking about it to make any real change.
