SOF

The Military May Now Have a New Tool To Diagnose TBI

In the multiple conflicts on-going since 2001, there has been a dramatic rise in Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) due to the close proximity our soldiers face with explosions, bombs, and weapons.

TBI has been called the ‘invisible wound of war’ as many times the soldiers suffering from its effects won’t notice the toll for months, even years.

Now the military is testing small, coin-sized sensors that can be used on the battlefield to test members for what is now being termed, multiple, mild traumatic brain injuries or mTBI.

Since 2010, there have been more than 361,000 service members diagnosed with some form of traumatic brain injury, according to the US Defense Department’s Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center. The three different forms of TBI—severe, moderate, and mild—all manifest in different ways ranging from memory loss and extended unconsciousness to a simple headache. Mild TBI tends to go unnoticed. One blast may not cause effects like memory loss or slurred speech, the telltale signs of brain trauma, and, especially while in theatre, there’s really no easy way to diagnose the condition, says Alex Balbir, director of Warrior Care Network and Independence Services at the Wounded Warriors Project.
“The brain has very interesting ways of responding to these mild traumas,” says Balbir. “It’s only after a few [mTBI’s], that’s when you start to see the effects of the trauma” like memory loss and slurred speech.
In an effort to fill that technology gap, Timothy Bentley, and his team at the Office of Naval Research’s Warfighter Performance Department in Arlington, Virginia, have engineered new sensor technology that could give medics on the battlefield a clearer idea of whether or not an injury actually occurred after a blast.
The coin-sized sensors, placed in service members’ helmets and tactical gear, detect the impact of a blast wave—which moves faster than the speed of sound—and assign it a number, a measure of blast strength. The number is then run through an algorithm that computes how a service member was hit by a blast, which sensors were activated based on their placement, and then tells medics if the service member needs to get off the field immediately or not.
If the algorithm shows a possible mTBI, medics in the field have the service member hold a mouse-sized tool—nicknamed the “brain gauge”—that stimulates the fingertips through eraser-sized vibrators. The brain gauge vibrates each finger for a different length of time—if a service member can’t recognize which vibrations last longer, it’s highly likely he or she has suffered an mTBI.

This technology will soon be available to the civilian world as well where its use would be of particular interest in the sporting world i.e. contact sports such as football and hockey.

To read the entire article from Quartz.com, click here:

Photo courtesy Reuters

The US Needs a Light, Turboprop, Ground Support Aircraft

In a not-so-amazing turn of events, the Air Force has come to the realization that they need a lighter, more cost efficient, ground support aircraft. The Air Force hasn’t had those types of aircraft in the inventory since Vietnam and has been loath to even keep the invaluable A-10, preferring the sleek, sexier F-15, and the F-16.

But for the pilots who fly the missions in combat, especially in the Middle East, it is a no brainer and the Air Force is listening to them and will hold an attack experiment using light turboprop aircraft at Hollman, AFB.

Light attack aircraft were just that – smaller attack aircraft like the A-37 Dragonfly or Navy OV-10, with significant weapons loads but not designed to stand up in the front of the apocalyptic Soviet/NATO battlefield. For the Air Force, the long path to considering a new attack aircraft started in 2008. Faced with increasing airpower demand in Iraq and Afghanistan, the existing fighters were being wrung out. For the kind of air support we were providing for U.S. ground forces, the existing F-16, F-15E and Navy / Marine F-18 were a ridiculous overmatch.
But we also wanted aircraft that could be forward deployed to austere airfields, fueled from 55-gallon drums, and supplied from the back of a pickup truck – none of which a jet can easily do. And we needed it to be relatively cheap to buy and to operate. In short, we envisioned an aircraft that looked like earlier designs, with the weapons and sensors of a modern jet.
These aircraft existed. I had seen the A-29 Super Tucano in Colombia in 2007. Raytheon had a conversion of their T-6 trainer (the AT-6) that included a weapons capability. What we were looking for was off the shelf stuff, not needing a long development period. For combat operations in the Middle East, this seemed like a good match.
The aircraft that existed were two-seaters with light armor, good day/night electro-optical sensors, guns, and precision munitions. Unrefueled, they had twice the loiter time of the fast jets. They sipped fuel – the fuel they burned in an hour of flight approximated the fuel an F-15E used taxiing from parking to the runway. We were looking at traditional attack aircraft – combat aircraft that could be used for a wide array of missions from Close Air Support to interdiction to combat search & rescue. In 2009, these aircraft could have flown from a dozen US-operated airfields in Afghanistan that could not have supported fast jets.

The experiment will confirm what the combat pilots already know. In a combat operations area that the sky is controlled by the US, the light, turboprop attack aircraft offers better flexibility, cost effectiveness, better precision and can be more effective in the war on terror.

To read the entire article from Forbes.com, click here:

Photo courtesy US Air Force

Roy Benavidez MOH Epitomized What A Special Operator Is

He was wounded 37 times by bullets, shrapnel, a bayonet, and a rifle butt but his only thoughts were on those others who were hit on that day in May 1968. His actions saved eight other men’s lives in Vietnam on that day. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery but it wouldn’t be for 13 more years. Because nothing ever came easy for Roy Benavidez.

Benavidez was born in 1935 outside of Cuero, Texas to a Mexican sharecropper father and a Yaqui Indian mother. Both of them would be dead of tuberculosis before Roy was eight years old. He was moved to his grandparents with his younger brother and he grew up with eight other cousins in the household.

He struggled in school before dropping out in the seventh grade. He worked odd jobs to help support his family; in a tire shop, on farms in the area, even shining shoes in the bus station.

Everything began to change for him in 1952 when he joined the National Guard. Three years later he enlisted in the Regular Army. He married his wife and joined the 82^nd Airborne Division in 1959. Like many other men, he moved down the street and joined Special Forces.

On his first tour of duty in Vietnam in 1965, he stepped on a landmine and was airlifted out to the states where he was told that he’d never walk again. Determined to prove the doctors wrong, he’d sneak out of his bed and began a furious nightly regimen where he’s crawl to a wall and slowly force himself up to a standing position. He recalled in a speech the agony he’d go thru to walk again.

“The doctors were initiating my medical discharge papers, but at night I would slip out of bed and crawl to a wall using my elbows and my chin. My back would just be killing me and I’d be crying, but I get to the wall and I set myself against the wall and I’d back myself up against the wall and I’d stand there — like Kaw-Liga, the Indian. I’d stand and move my toes, right and left…every single chance I got — I got. And I wanted to walk — I wanted to go back to Vietnam because of what the news media was saying about us: that our presence was not needed there; they’re burning the flag.”

A year later in July 1966, he walked out of the hospital accompanied by his wife, determined to resume his Special Forces career.

Benavidez returned to Vietnam in January 1968. He was assigned to Detachment B-56, 5^th Special Forces Group at Loc Ninh, an SF base along the Cambodian border.

On May 2, 1968, Benavidez, a devout Catholic was attending a prayer service when he heard that a 12-man patrol had inserted into a hornets’ nest of NVA, numbering between 1000-1500. The patrol of three Americans and nine Nung tribesmen was shot up and calling for immediate extraction. The ensuing battle would last for over six hours.

Three attempts to extricate the team by helicopters were driven off by intense ground and anti-aircraft fire. Grabbing a medical aid bag and armed with only a knife, Benavidez leaped on a rescue chopper and off they went.

The helicopter got to within 75 yards of the trapped men and Benavidez jumped from the hovering Huey and raced to the trapped team coming under withering fire. He was hit in the leg and knocked down. But he continued to the team and blasted by a grenade blast suffering shrapnel wounds to his face, arm, and back.

Reaching the trapped team, four men were already dead and the rest were wounded. Benavidez treated the wounded, grabbed an AK from one of the dead men and passed around ammunition. Then he directed air strikes around the perimeter to keep the NVA at bay.

Calling in a Huey to evacuate part of the dead and wounded, he was shot again in the leg. Ignoring his own wounds, he dragged the dead and wounded to the chopper, he provided covering fire. The chopper moved to the second group of men for extract with Benavidez under it, firing at the enemy.

NVA fire increased and smashed into the Huey, killing the pilot and sending the Huey crashing into the ground. Benavidez had made it to the dead team leader and removed the classified documents from around the man’s neck. He was then shot in the stomach by an NVA soldier and another grenade tore into his back and shoulders.

Despite this, and now coughing up blood, he crawled to the downed helicopter. There they formed a small perimeter and passed out the remaining ammunition. He continued to direct air strikes from F-4 Phantom jets and helicopter gunships to push the NVA back. Several of the strikes were danger close.

The North Vietnamese fire increased and mortar rounds were falling everywhere. All of the wounded including Benavidez were hit again. The American helicopter pilots were ready to attempt another rescue attempt.

Grabbing a seriously wounded American SF team member, he hoisted him over his shoulder and lurched toward the waiting helicopter. An NVA soldier believed dead, leaped up and clubbed Benavidez with the butt of his Ak-47, breaking his jaw and knocking him to the ground. As the NVA soldier lunged at Benavidez with his bayonet, Roy grabbed it with his right hand and used his Bowie knife in his left. Pulling the enemy soldier forward he stabbed him but not before suffering a slash to his right hand and his left arm being run thru with the bayonet.

Again, he attempted to drag his American comrade to the helicopter and then noticed two more NVA run from the jungle in the blind spot of the American door gunners. Benavidez grabbed an AK-47 and somehow managed to drop both of the enemy soldiers.

He then made another trip into the perimeter and brought out the team’s interpreter before finally being pushed into the helicopter and lifting off. Holding his intestines in with one hand, he held his dying teammate’s hand with the other.

Having almost bled out on the helicopter, Benavidez slipped into near unconsciousness. A doctor felt for a heartbeat and not registering one, indicated that he should be placed in a body bag with the dead. Benavidez, unable to speak because of the broken jaw, spit in the doctor’s face to let him know he was still alive.

He was then taken into the hospital where the doctors began to treat his myriad of injuries. He had seven gunshot wounds, one of them went thru his back, destroying his right lung and exited just beneath his heart. He had 28 shrapnel wounds in his back, neck, head, legs, feet, and buttocks. Both arms were pierced by a bayonet as well as his hand. His jaw was broken and the back of his head smashed by the enemy’s rifle butt. None of the doctors expected Benavidez to survive. They were wrong.

His wounds were to take a year to heal and he went back to Brooke Army Medical Center. His commander wanted to put Roy in for the Medal of Honor but instead opted for the Distinguished Service Cross believing that he’d at least receive that before his wounds would kill him. Benavidez was awarded the DSC by Gen. William Westmoreland the Chief of Staff of the Army.

Years later after the war, his commander tried to get the Army to reconsider and upgrade Benavidez’s award to the Medal of Honor. But was told that no other American had survived and could confirm his deeds.

Far away in the Fiji Islands, an American, Brian O’Connor who had been the radio man that called for that first frantic call for extraction, read about the development in the newspapers. He wrote a detailed description of the fateful event on that day in May 1968 and that Benavidez was responsible for saving the lives of eight men.

The Pentagon reconsidered and in 1981, President Ronald Reagan presented Benavidez the Medal of Honor. Reagan turned to the press and said, “If the story of his heroism were a movie script, you would not believe it”.

The official citation for Benavidez’s Medal of Honor can be read here:

President Reagan urged Benavidez to speak to the young children of the USA, something Roy took to heart and enjoyed immensely. He spoke about getting an education, learning a trade and love of country.

Here is a YouTube clip of one such speech he gave and it shows the humbleness and patriotism of the man.

Fast forward several years, my path would briefly cross with Benavidez as he was still helping with the American SF’ers hurt. While on a deployment to Central America with the 7^th Special Forces Group, my ODA commander suffered a terrible injury which would result in him becoming a quadriplegic.

In the typical snafu of the passing between the Army and the VA, his benefits were put on hold. Benavidez, who was made aware of the situation jumped in and immediately set things straight, going straight to the head of the VA and said he’d contact then ex-President Reagan if need be. The VA benefits kicked in immediately.

We thanked him and Roy would have none of it. “If I can’t use this medal to help out fellow SFers, then it isn’t worth anything,” he said. He was still bringing guys to the chopper in a way. I still have the autographed picture he gave me. It is one of my prized possessions.

Benavidez died from complications of diabetes in 1998 but his legend will live on. He’s the consummate Special Operator. And on this day 49 years ago, he showed the never quit attitude that the Special Operations Forces pride themselves on. He often finished his speeches with this closing.

I’m asked hundreds of times: Would you do it over again? In my 25 years in the military, I feel like I’ve been overpaid for the service to my country. There will never be enough paper to print the money nor enough gold in Fort Knox for me to have to keep from doing what I did. I’m proud to be an American; and even prouder — and I’m even prouder that I’ve earned the privilege to wear the Green Beret. I live by the motto of “Duty, Honor, Country.”

Photo courtesy Roy Benavidez Facebook

SOF Selection PT Preparation 5.4.2017

Back to the gym for a Chest and triceps workout to include some pushups, sit-ups and kip ups. Then a 5-mile ruck march with 45-pounds minimum. Remember to stay hydrated and mark your progress down in your workout log book.

Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 12 Bench Press

3 x 10 Dumbbell Flies

3 x 10 Dumbbell Incline press

3 x 20 Pushups

3 x 10 Kip Ups

3 x 20 Sit ups

3 x 20 Cable Push Downs (rope)

3 x 20 Dips or until muscle failure

5-mile rucksack march (45-pound minimum) over varied terrain, note your time

Stretch well after completion

Russian Defense Ministry Reports Military Advisor Killed By Sniper in Syria

The Russian Ministry of Defense has announced that a Russian military advisor to the Syrian military has been killed by sniper fire while fighting against militants fighting against the regime of President Assad.

The military failed to announce whether the Russian officer was fighting ISIS or one of the other militant groups facing Assad’s forces, some of whom are trained and supported by the United States.

The adviser, identified as Lt. Col. Alexey Buchelnikov, was in Syria training local military personnel when his death was announced Tuesday.
“Alexey Buchelnikov was in Syria as part of a group of Russian military advisers, carrying out his mission of training Syrian artillery unit personnel,” Interfax quoted a defense ministry spokesperson as saying. “During a lesson on combat training, the Syrian unit came under fire from snipers.”
Buchelnikov was fatally wounded in the crossfire.
“The high command has ordered to posthumously grant Aleksey Buchelnikov a state award,” the spokesperson added.
On April 20, the Russian Defense Ministry reported the death of major Sergey Bordov, who was stationed in Syria, advising local army units on how to protect their towns from terrorist attack. Like Buchelnikov, Bordov’s family will receive his medal posthumously.
On April 11, it was reported that two Russian military instructors had been killed and one soldier injured as they came under mortar shelling by a group of militants.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry said that a Russian soldier had died near Palmyra, Syria, when Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) militants tried to break through an area occupied by Syrian pro-government forces.
A Russian major general also lost both legs and an eye when a radio-controlled bomb hit a convoy heading toward an airfield west of Palmyra. In February, four Russian servicemen were killed in another radio-controlled bomb blast that targeted a military convoy.

This brings the total number of Russian dead in the Syria campaign to 29 since they became actively involved in 2015 according to official Russian sources in the Ministry of Defense.

To read the entire article from the RT News click here:

Photo courtesy Sputnik

USSOCOM Wants Performance-enhancing Products for its Operator Dogs

“Cry Havoc and let slip the dogs of war.” USSOCOM is trying to upgrade the performance of its working dog component and they’re looking at pharmaceutical companies to help them do so.

The value of working dog teams with the Special Operations teams with whom they operate can’t be understated. Perhaps no dog is more well-known than Cairo the Belgian Malinois who accompanied SEAL Team 6 into Abbottabad, Pakistan on the mission to get Osama bin Laden in 2011. Cairo even has broken ranks with the Quiet Professionals and has his own Facebook page.

In fact, the enemy has decided that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and have taken to using dogs themselves now. Part of the new task for SOF dog teams is to neutralize and inhibit the work of the enemy’s dogs.

SOCom relies on dogs for jobs like detecting explosives and enemy personnel and works to keep enemy dogs from exposing its secrets.
So the command submitted a request last month through the Pentagon’s Small Business Innovation Research portal for companies interested in developing the necessary products. They are asked to respond via email to [email protected].
For its own dogs, SOCom is seeking products that optimize hearing, vision and scent, improve recovery time when wounded, and increase survivability.
The goal, according to the request, is to help the animals — called “multi-purpose canines” — perform at “very high levels for long durations” under “high levels of stress and distraction.”
At the same time, the request says, the products “must be safe, affordable and easily administered.”
The request includes references to six scientific studies on the subject.
About 150 multi-purpose canines are in use across SOCom, said Ken McGraw, a spokesman for the command.

The upgrade of the dog capability shows how quickly the operational landscape changes and how the SOF community is constantly adapting. These enhancements will make the dog teams much more effective in accomplishing their mission and reduce their chances of compromise.

To read the entire article from the Tampa Bay Times click here:

Photo courtesy USSOCOM

The Golden Age of Special Operations, But is the OpTempo Too High?

The United States’ Special Operations Forces are seemingly everywhere and that perception is not far off. In 2016, they were deployed to 138 countries around the globe or about 70 percent of the world.

From battlefields in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, to Somalia and West Africa, to advising counter-narcotics units in the Andean Ridge, working with allied troops in the Far East or braving the bitter cold of the Arctic. Special Operations Forces [SOF], are being used to protect US interests everywhere. This is the age of the Quiet Professional. The demand for their use everywhere has never been higher.

While conventional forces are being under-utilized, the SOF warriors are scarcely a fraction of the total force but are doing the lion’s share of the fighting across the globe. SOF units are taking on the forces of ISIS, al-Qaeda, al-Shabab and other terrorist organizations in the most visible of their operations.

But a resurgent and increasingly belligerent Russia, an expansionist China and a seemingly loose cannon in North Korea are factors in the deployment of troops. SOF are also combatting these threats, in the shadows, like they’ve always done.

Now the question is, are the powers in the US government and the Pentagon burning out the force by giving the operators an operational tempo [OPTEMPO] that is too high and will prove to be their undoing?

General Raymond Thomas, Commander of the US Special Operations Command testified before a House Armed Services Committee that the command is suffering from “unforecasted deployment tempo”. The command forecasted the US end to operations in Afghanistan in 2014. But here in May of 2017, there appears no end in sight to combat deployments and operations.

Theresa Whelan the acting Under Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict said that the command has been forced to mortgage the future to fulfill current combat operations. It has hurt the readiness, she said and will only get worse as the demand increases for future operations.

According to Special Operations Command, 55.29 percent of special operators deployed in 2016 were sent to the Middle East. That is a drop of 35 percent since 2006. SOF deployments to Africa have increased dramatically to 17.26 percent last year, up from just one percent ten years ago. European Command deployments at 12.67 percent, Pacific Command with 9.19 percent, Southern Command with 4.89 percent and Northern Command at 0.69 percent round out SOCOM’s deployments in 2016.

From intelligence gathering missions to direct action, SOF operations are the front line of defense in the war against terror organizations like ISIS working with both the CIA and under the auspices of JSOC [Joint Special Operations Command].

The Command has taken to targeting the leaders of ISIS and removing them and the flow of fresh fighters to the battlefield. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the Armed Services Committee in previous testimony that the operations are successful.

”We are systematically eliminating ISIL’s leadership: the coalition has taken out seven members of the ISIL Senior Shura. We also removed key ISIL leaders in both Libya and Afghanistan… And we’ve removed from the battlefield more than 20 of ISIL’s external operators and plotters.”

“We have entrusted this aspect of our campaign to one of [the Department of Defense’s] most lethal, capable, and experienced commands, our Joint Special Operations Command, which helped deliver justice not only to Osama Bin Laden, but also to the man who founded the organization that became ISIL, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi.”

But the constant combat deployments are a drain on the units and the personnel who never have time to recharge and retool after more than a decade of combat. And the cracks are beginning to show.

General Thomas said that “I closely monitor the parts of our force that are under the most stress,” he stated. “There are forces that are meeting themselves in some regards. Others are in better balance…it’s a challenge”

The challenge he speaks about can be seen in the increasing suicide rate among the nation’s soldiers. Thomas wouldn’t answer how high the rate is, saying talk like that is morbid. But the allegations of high drug use among the Navy’s top unit the SEALs is another sign that the force is getting burnt out.

The units have had issues with widespread cases of divorce, domestic violence, drunk driving, depression and sleep problems; outbreaks of angry violence; chronic physical ailments and pain.

The demand for the United States’ SOF operators has never been higher. But as we pointed out in our piece of May 1, Special operations troops cannot be mass-produced. The training takes time, and for the units to do the proper identification, assessment and selection and training, the washout rate will remain high. The standards must never be lowered to meet number requirements.

But in the meantime, the operators of SOF carry on the mission and the tempo gets increasingly higher.

SOF Selection PT Preparation 5.3.2017

Hump Day of the week, head to the gym for back and shoulders work and then head out for a 4-mile ruck march. Remember to stay hydrated while on the march and mark your progress in the workout log book.

Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 12 Lat Pulldowns, behind the neck (go as heavy as possible)

3 x 12 Lat Pulldowns, front

3 x 10 Deadlift

3 x 10 Dumbbell Side Raises

3 x 10 Dumbbell Front Raises

3 x 10 Dumbbell Arnold Press

3 x 8 Shoulder Shrugs

4-mile Rucksack march (45lb minimum)

Stretch well after completion

Military Does an About Face On Military Athletes Playing Pro Sports

The Pentagon has changed its policy on student athletes stating that it would no longer approve requests to waive active-duty military service commitments. It already affected the status of Air Force Academy wide receiver Jalen Robinette.

Robinette was considered a mid-round pick in last weekend’s NFL Draft in leading the country with a 24.7 yard per catch average for the Air Force in 2016. He believed that the Air Force would, like the services had done in the past, allow him to play pro football and place him in the reserves.

But the decision, announced on Thursday just hours prior to the draft has left Robinette undrafted. Now he’ll have to serve a minimum of two years on active duty before he can resume his pro football dreams.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Pentagon said, “Our military academies exist to develop future officers who enhance the readiness and the lethality of our military services. Graduates enjoy the extraordinary benefit of a military academy education at taxpayer expense.
“Therefore, upon graduation, officers will serve as military officers for their minimum commitment of two years.”
After Navy standout quarterback Keenan Reynolds was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens last year, the defense department changed its policy for service-academy athletes who are offered the opportunity to play professionally, saying they could receive reserve appointments upon graduation and start their pro careers immediately rather than serving two years of active duty first.

The New England Patriots have a Navy Ensign, Joe Cardona who was assigned to the Naval Preparatory School in Connecticut which allows him to play for the Patriots while balancing his Navy commitments. He announced the Patriots 4^th round selection while in uniform at his base on Saturday afternoon.

While we certainly can understand Robinette’s frustration at the last second change in policy, he did sign up for the military and received a first-class education. And his commitment will come first. It isn’t known if the change in policy will affect the other players such as Reynolds and Cardona in the future.

To read the entire article from ESPN News, click here:

Photo courtesy Author

Troops Complained About Nude Photos Last Year Reports Say

ABC News has reported that the scandal involving the publishing nude photos of female members in the military was reported to the Pentagon months before. In an anonymous survey conducted by the military in 2016, sexual harassment and assault, over 6000 female military members complained about the practice.

The survey was sent to 735,000 military members and over 150,000 responded. The social media questions were asked for the first time because the military reported that this was becoming a concern. So the various commands had to be receiving complaints about this practice or they encountered them thru word of mouth in the individual units or organizations.

In a report issued Monday, the Pentagon said that nearly 6,200 military members said that sexually explicit photos of them were taken or shared against their will by someone from work, and it made them “uncomfortable, angry or upset.” And, across the services, female Marines made up the largest percentage of women who complained.
More than 22,000 service members said they were upset or angry when someone at work showed or sent them pornography. And, again, female Marines represented the highest percentage of complaints from women.
The responses reflect a growing concern across the military about inappropriate social media behavior. The scandal came to light last month when sexually explicit photos of female and male Marines were being shared on a secret Facebook page. The revelation triggered a wide-ranging criminal investigation that now encompasses all the services, and has prompted changes and restrictions in military social media policies.
The latest survey results, however, make it clear that the issue has long been simmering in the military.
Nate Galbreath, deputy director of the Pentagon’s sexual assault prevention office, said the results “tell us that this is a problem and we have to start having more conversations about social media behavior.”

While the number of sexual assaults and unwanted contacts is far down from the numbers posted just a few years ago, the fact that nearly 15,000 responded that they were indeed victims of this speaks to a bigger issue. Of the reported 14,900 members stating that they received unwanted sexual contact, 6300 of them were men.

That’s nearly 10 percent of the members responding to the survey. And since these types of issues largely go unreported, the Pentagon still has a lot of work to do in this area.

To read the entire article from ABC News, click here:

Photo courtesy DOD