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11/13/2014 Inside One Victim's Military Sexual Harassment Investigation
http://www.buzzfeed.com/alisonvingiano/heres-what-happened-when-a-soldier-recorded-the-investigatio?bffb 1/8
Katie Rapp
Katie Rapp was surprised when she was told to go to a Perkins restaurant outsideCincinnati to discuss the investigation into her claims of sexual harassment.
Rapp, a member of the Ohio National Guard, sat in a corner booth trying to fend offa panic attack as she described her experience in Afghanistan. A Beyoncé songblasted in the background.
âEverything I went through in [the] country was hard. It really sucked,â Rapp toldBuzzFeed News. âBut my investigation was the hardest four hours of my life.â
Itâs been over two years since Rapp was sent home from Afghanistan and 19 monthssince her investigation interview in March 2013. In about 30 days she will learn if shewill get her wish to receive an honorable medical discharge from the military, or berequired to stay until her contract ends in 2018. She had been distracting herselffrom thinking about the case by attending classes in biochemistry at the Universityof Cincinnati, but has since taken some time off due to the medical board evaluationprocess.
Rappâs case was assigned to Lt. Col. Lisa Gammon. The National Guard andGammon would not comment on how many previous military sexual assault casesGammon had investigated, but, according to her LinkedIn profile, she had beenworking with the Ohio National Guard since 2008.
Rapp had already become disillusioned with the National Guard by the time she metwith Gammon. Rapp claims that she was repeatedly sexually harassed by men onher unit, both while deployed in Afghanistan and also during basic training in SouthCarolina. She said that after reporting the incidents, her captain transferred her to adifferent platoon, rather than punishing her alleged harassers. She was sent to amandatory psychological evaluation, diagnosed with an âadjustment disorder,â andsent home.
âI learned that nobody believes you unless you can prove it,â said Rapp. So she
11/13/2014 Inside One Victim's Military Sexual Harassment Investigation
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decided to record her interview with Gammon, just in case the meeting didnât gowell.
In her words, âIt was four straight hours of victim-blaming.â
While Rappâs investigation is only one example of more than 5,000 annual reportedsexual misconduct cases in the military, the audio recording she took and providedexclusively to BuzzFeed News gives the public a glimpse into exactly what happensduring that process.
Katie Rapp
At the restaurant, Rapp and Gammon were joined by Kori Cioca, a survivor ofmilitary sexual assault whom Rapp had met just days before at a screening of thedocumentary The Invisible War. Cioca, who is one of the filmâs subjects, attendedthe event and stayed for a Q&A after the film.
âI knew I had to stay there and talk to her,â said Rapp. âI wanted to know whenpeople would start taking what I said seriously, if it would get any better. I told her Ihad an investigation hearing in the next couple days, and she said sheâd come withme. She said I didnât need to go alone.â
The Perkins wasnât too crowded that morning. After getting their coffees, Gammonand Rapp sat in a corner booth, away from the hordes of people ordering food andchatting with friends in line. (Although the noise from the restaurant makes therecording difficult to hear at times). Cioca remembered a family sitting just a fewtables away. A waiter only interrupted them once or twice during the lengthyinterview.
âKatieâs investigation really reminded me of my own,â Cioca, who was raped sevenyears ago and given an honorable misconduct discharge, told BuzzFeed News.âThatâs why I knew she needed a tape recorder. She didnât have one when I got tothe restaurant, so I downloaded one on my phone and I recorded the whole thing.â
At the start of the recording, Gammon is criticizing the Sexual Assault Resource
11/13/2014 Inside One Victim's Military Sexual Harassment Investigation
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Center (SARC)âs involvement with the case.
âWe already have a problem with the investigation,â Gammon told Rapp during thefirst two minutes of the interview. When she first opened up a sexual harassmentcase with the Ohio National Guard, Rapp sought the help of a member of SARC,Lieutenant Karista Myers. According to Cioca, Myers âwanted to make real changeswithin the military.â
In the recording, Gammon said she had problems with Myersâ report and that shewanted to âstart from scratch.â
On Myersâ efforts, Gammon says, âShe has really overstepped her boundaries. Sheâsa first lieutenant who hasnât got a clue how to do her job.â She continues to make aracially charged comment about Myersâ qualifications, which is audible about 30seconds into the recording below.
Since the March 2013 interview, Myers has been promoted to Captain, Rapp said.
Myers declined BuzzFeed Newsâ request for comment. Numerous emails and phonecalls to Gammon were not returned.
Gammon discusses why SARC officer Myers shouldnot be involved in Rappâs case.
Due to the location of the interview and the recording device, the audio is at times difficult to hear.
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Gammonâs first question regarding Rappâs case was about whether she took anymedication and how it affected her memory.
âAre some details foggy?â Gammon asked.
âItâs not that I donât remember,â said Rapp. âItâs just that Iâve retold the story so manytimes. Iâve pushed and pushed. ⊠My therapists call it PTSD.â
Several minutes into the interview, Gammon asked Cioca about her own experiencewith sexual assault. All three of the women then discussed the double standard ofwomen in the military. Gammon pointed out that women in the military need to worktwice as hard as men. âIf you can understand that concept, youâll understand whatyouâre up against,â she stated matter-of-factly.
Gammon cracked a joke that about 80% of women in the military are âsluts.â Rappalso called a woman on her unit a âslutâ during the interview, saying, âOne specialistasked me why I didnât like her, and I told her itâs because sheâs a slut and heractions were going to get me hurt. I was one in 12 women going over [toAfghanistan] with over 300 guys and no female leadership, and donât you realize, tothem weâre all just females?â
11/13/2014 Inside One Victim's Military Sexual Harassment Investigation
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Gammon, Cioca, and Rapp discuss the doublestandard for women in the military.
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Around an hour and 20 minutes into the interview, Rapp described the harassmentshe says she experienced. She described one instance where a soldier corneredher in the dark âin between her legsâ and made sexual comments about her.
At 1:18, Gammon defended the men on Rappâs unit:
You have to understand, this is an all-male unit; they donât know how todeal with women. ⊠Heâs a guy, heâs thinking from a guyâs perspective.
Rapp continued describing being sexually harassed, detailing lewd comments thesoldier made to her, and at 1:28, Gammon asked: âWhy didnât you push him?â
Rapp told Gammon that it was because of his ranking. âHe was my first sergeant,âshe said.
Seemingly defending Rapp, Gammon replied, âBy virtue of his ranking, he createdthis situation. He might not have realized it, but it was inappropriate.â Then Gammondescribed what Rapp could have done differently to prevent the harassment. âDidyou ever talk to him about the way you felt when he behaved like that?â she asked.
Later, Gammon brought this up once more, asking, â[When he was harassing you]why didnât you tell him this was inappropriate or uncomfortable?â (2:50)
Rapp describes an incident of harassment and fieldsquestions about it from Gammon.
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During the investigation, Rapp told investigators that her squad leader, SSGStephen Ritchey, was one of her only friends in her unit.
âBe honest with me, did you sleep with him?â Gammon asked Rapp during theinvestigation.
âNo,â said Rapp, who was engaged at the time. She said he was the âone person
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looking out for me.â
Both Ritchey and Rapp said they have repeatedly been forced to defend theirfriendship to the National Guard. Ritchey, who was also interviewed by Gammon forRappâs investigation, told BuzzFeed News that he was asked if he had sexualrelations with Rapp.
âEven if we did have an inappropriate relationship,â Ritchey said, âit would not havechanged anything about people sexually harassing Katie. I think Gammon had justbeen in it for a long time and came into the investigation like, âIâve seen all this crapbefore.ââ
He added that because Rapp did not claim she was raped or physically assaulted,her case was harder to prove.
âPeople who have legitimate complaints about sexual harassment have been hurtby a system that doesnât believe harassment claims are consistently legitimate,âRitchey said.
Gammon questions Rapp about another incident ofharassment.
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There are other moments of the investigation Rapp felt were inappropriate.Gammon asked Rapp whether she had sex with her husband while she was stayingat basic training in South Carolina. At one point later in the interview, Gammonquestioned her about being a dancer at a strip club years before ever joining themilitary. âDid they [your harassers] know you were a dancer?â Gammon asked.
When Rapp â holding back tears â asked to take a break, Gammon denied therequest. About an hour later, Gammon suggested they âtake a breatherâ and thewomen stop the conversation for several minutes.
Three hours into the interview, Gammon suggested that Rapp wanted to leave themilitary after having only âone bad experience.â
Iâm seeing somebody who really wanted something, and had one terribleexperience, and the system for whatever reason is stacked against you. âŠThis is a business, no more different than a car business. You have onebad experience, and then you tell everybody what a bad experience itwas. If it was a positive experience, maybe youâll tell one or two people,but if itâs a negative experience, then youâre going to tell a lot morepeople. So can we do something to make this a more positive experiencefor you?
11/13/2014 Inside One Victim's Military Sexual Harassment Investigation
http://www.buzzfeed.com/alisonvingiano/heres-what-happened-when-a-soldier-recorded-the-investigatio?bffb 6/8
Rapp and her niece on her last day of basic training. Katie Rapp
Rapp grew up dreaming of a career in the military. She was eager for deployment.She joined the National Guard in 2008, but was injured during training the followingyear and was told she could get out on a medical discharge.
âI didnât see the military as a short-term thing for me. I wanted it so badly,â Rappsaid. So she went back to training and finished in 2011. When she first volunteeredfor deployment, she was disappointed she wasnât selected. A few months later,however, a commander called her and said she was being deployed to Afghanistan.
The harassment started during pre-mobilization at Camp Shelby in Mississippi, Rappsaid. Her husband lived nearby, a detail that Rappâs harassers allegedly noticed.The alleged harassers would ask her details about having sex with her husband,often while making sexual advances toward her.
Sitting in a plane months later headed to Afghanistan, she was terrified â not onlyof entering a war zone, but also because the men who had been taunting her werepart of her unit.
âI was hoping the women would band together,â Rapp told BuzzFeed News. âBut itdidnât happen.â
Rapp endured the alleged harassment for weeks before reporting it to her captain,Todd Kaiser.
âCapt. Kaiser told me that if I didnât cut the crap he would charge me withdisobeying a direct order in a war zone,â she explained. âHe went on to make sure Ifully understood that the penalties were as high as being punishable by death.â
Ritchey elaborated that had it âbeen handled differently by Capt. Kaiser, it neverwould have gotten so out of hand.â After reporting the harassment, Rapp wasreassigned to a different platoon. Her harassers were given a âstern talking to,âRitchey said.
11/13/2014 Inside One Victim's Military Sexual Harassment Investigation
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When Ritchey asked Kaiser why he moved Rapp instead of her harassers, Kaiserdenied that it was about the sexual misconduct reports. He allegedly told Ritcheyshe was transferred because he had heard that there was an inappropriaterelationship between Rapp and Ritchey, he recalled.
âI said I would welcome that investigation and he should open an investigationabout that if he was worried about it,â Ritchey said. âBut instead he moved her.â
After moving platoons, Rapp was sent to see a military doctor who diagnosed herwith an âadjustment disorder.â
One woman on Rappâs unit, Shannon Kinney, said that Rapp never hadpsychological issues. âSheâs a smart lady,â Kinney told BuzzFeed News. Rapp saidthat her only psychological problem is PTSD from her harassment and the way shewas treated by the military leadership. After her medical diagnosis, Rapp wasordered her to return home and was accompanied out of the country by Kinney.
Rapp and her mother on the day she was deployed in 2011. Katie Rapp
After the meeting with Gammon, Cioca and Rapp took the recording âright to thecommanders,â said Cioca. âAnd it started a fire.â
âEverybody was scared of me when they found out I recorded the investigation,âRapp said. âI finally had proof that my claims werenât being taken seriously.â
Later, Rapp played the recording for her commanders and generals, includingLieutenant Colonel Thomas Moore, the battalion commander, who Rapp said wassupportive of her and helped her bring the case to the attention of the OhioNational Guard chief of staff.
11/13/2014 Inside One Victim's Military Sexual Harassment Investigation
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Tagged: katie rapp, buzzfeed news, gammon, military sexual assault, ohio national guard, sexual harrassment
âLTC Moore told me that he was proud of me,â Rapp recalled. âHe said recordingthe interview was the smartest thing Iâve ever done.â
Rappâs alleged sexual harassers are still active in the military, Ritchey said. He alsosaid Kaiser has since been promoted to major.
Numerous emails and phone calls to the Ohio National Guard and Moore were notreturned. An Ohio National Guard captain who wished to remain anonymous toldBuzzFeed News that Rappâs investigation was not âtypical,â but the source alsoadmitted no previous involvement with military sexual assault investigations.
Gammon left the National Guard in April 2014, the Ohio National Guard confirmed toBuzzFeed News. The reason for her departure is unclear.
Rapp is now waiting to hear if she will be able to leave the military. Gammon hadsuggested that Rapp be deployed again but with a mostly female unit, so that shecould have a more positive experience. Instead, Rapp hopes she can receive anhonorable discharge.
âI donât want to wear the militaryâs uniform anymore,â Rapp said. âIt makes me sick.â
Contact the reporter: [email protected].
CORRECTION
Rapp was engaged during her deployment in Afghanistan, not married. The firstalleged instance of harassment was at pre-mobilization in Mississippi, not duringbasic combat-training in South Carolina. Nov. 12, 2014, at 10:45 p.m.