Republican Arizona Senator McSally, the US military's first female air force fighter pilot, says she was repeatedly assaulted during her service in the US Air Force
During a hearing by the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel about prevention and response to sexual assault in the military, Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., recounts her own experience while serving as a colonel in the Air Force, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. McSally, the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat, says she was raped in the Air Force by superior officer.
McSally said she did not report being raped because she did not trust the system, and she said she was ashamed and confused. She said she was impressed and grateful to the survivors who came forward to help change the system. She was in the ninth class at the Air Force Academy to allow women, and said sexual harassment and assault were prevalent. Victims mostly suffered in silence, she said.
"I'm deeply affected by that testimony," said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who has pushed strongly for changes. At a break, McSally hugged others who were appearing before the committee, including a West Point graduate who detailed being raped by her commander. McSally she said she was impressed and grateful to the survivors wh o came forward over the years to help to change the system.
Reports of sexual assaults across the military jumped nearly 10 percent in 2017 — a year that also saw an online nude-photo sharing scandal rock the Defense Department. "We have come a long way to stop military sexual assault but we still have a long way to go," the senator said. "It took many years and too many lives ruined."
The senator told the Wall Street Journal last year that she had been sexually abused as a teenager by her high school track coach. She said the coach took advantage of her through "emotional manipulation" because her father had died.McSally served in the Air Force from 1988 until 2010 and rose to the rank of colonel before entering politics. She deployed six times to the Middle East and Afghanistan, flying 325 combat hours and earning a Bronze Star and six air medals.
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