Sexual assault has long been a problem for the U.S. military.

Sexual assault takes many forms, such as rape, forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual contact and abusive sexual contact.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense's official report in the fiscal year 2019, U.S. military services received 7,825 reports of sexual assault involving members of the armed forces as either victims or subjects. 

The 4,834 completed investigations involved 5,245 victims and 5,140 subjects, the report says. The data shows that women comprise more than 80 percent of the victims, but about 1,000 men also reported sexual assaults.

A study that was supported by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs also shows that over 80 percent of LGBT service members experienced sexual harassment and a third of them have been stalked and sexually assaulted.

Is that all?

Sexual assault is often under-reported in all areas of society, including the military.

To get a sense of the total number of victims, including those who choose not to report, every two years, the U.S. Department of Defense estimates the number of sexual assault victims in the past year through an anonymous survey.

Not surprisingly, the total number is believed to be much higher than the reported one. In the official report conducted by the Pentagon in the fiscal year 2019, it shows that the latest survey conducted by the Pentagon for fiscal 2018 estimates that more than 20,000 military members experienced sexual assault, suggesting the reported incidents may account for only about 30 percent of the total.

Broken system

Martha McSally, as a veteran-senator who was the first female Air Force pilot to serve in combat, revealed in a congressional hearing on military sexual assault in 2019 that she was once preyed upon and then raped by a superior officer during her military serving.

"Like you, I'm also a military sexual assault survivor. But unlike many brave survivors, I didn't report being sexually assaulted," she said.

"I didn't trust the system," she further stressed, "like many victims, I felt like this system is raping me all over again."

It was a relief for her to finally speak out. But many fellow serving officers with a similar experience didn't survive.

Vanessa Guillen, a 20-year-old U.S. Army specialist, died last year after telling her mother she was sexually harassed by a sergeant. She didn't report the incident to the authorities, saying "they won't believe me," her mother recalled.

What was keeping Guillen from reporting the incident?

Let's see another story. If she had done so, wouldn't she have got justice?

Kayla Kight is the one who did report after being sexually assaulted. In an interview with ABC News, she said that she was sexually assaulted in June 2013 while she was working as a U.S. Army nurse. Soon, in early August, she submitted an unrestricted report, which officially opened a criminal investigation.

However, in the following years, she was subjected to numerous transfers, a negative officer evaluation report, and the eventual dropping of the case.

Yes, she did report, but her life and career were never the same after that.

Many people did not speak up about sexual assault, like McSally, as they were so disillusioned with the military system and they chose to try to let time wash away the memories and pain.

Those who did report, like Kayla, had hoped for better.

The suffering is not limited to American soil. The same nightmare is shared by many current and former serving women and men in Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel, South Korea, and many other places. 

When will justice come to them?

The internal system needs to be comprehensively reformed: adequate education and deterrent provisions to warn all; besides just encouraging victims to speak out, observing the abnormalities in their daily behavior; establishing a secure and private reporting system to prevent victims from being retaliated against; after the report, patient and continuous psychological counseling should be given; the investigation should go to the end, even if the person is no longer under the military's jurisdiction, and be handed over to a civilian court.

Justice will come, the most disciplined places are expected to make such a commitment.