What I find most bothersome is the denile of your chain of command. When I was raped by my sargent in my chain of command. I beat him to the point of hospitalization for almost a week. that did not help either. I was arrested then releasted. When the took all the evidence it was easy to show and see what had taken place. i.e. blood samples, bite marks, and saliva. then because he oppted ffor a chapter 10 for the good of the army he bypassed all the court marshal hearings. he now has an honoranble discharge. I am stuck with the night mares and the truma. the worst part is the ARMY let me down over and over again. when will that stop? makes me not even want to go to the VA for help. How is it that the very people who let me down for over 20 years can now all of a sudden help me. you want to help me........ put that man in jail. if it would have been a women he would have been court marshaled. something needs to be done to fix the system.... or just let me handle of my own accord without prosicution. My life and job skills and education have been totally destroyed by all this. now more than 20 years later i live in pain and the feeling of the loss of my manhood.

I was attacked & rape in 1991 while o active duty..mt babygurl was born the same year. I was diagnosed with ptsd/depression/bi pilar in 2007, i never told doc details or what happened ju sd t symptoms.. I finally came clean in 2011 about nightmare.told vaguely cried like it just happened recently. Now seeing doctor & the rapists..sucks..druggin & drinking since the rape...!Still emotional wreck, tried church, cant work, focus etc..file dmforbcompemsatuob 7/11 still waiting..how long b4 word back.S P

to dustin thrower: and anyone else that feels this way. when i was sexually assaulted in the military, i went to my chain of command almost immediately, my attacker admitted to the act. what happened next? nothing, no discipline, no anything, life went on as usual, well i got treated like a rat by my fellow soldiers, but there was nothing done to him, and i did not get any counselling or treatment. i had to continue to serve with him like nothing was wrong and nothing happened. months later while at another duty station i began to have nightmares of the incident, i went forward again to the next chain of command, sure they told me that they would help me and get me help in dealing with it, but that was the last i heard about the situation. after about another six months, when my drinking got way out of hand, and i was facing discipline actions from it, i was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, and shortly after had to be locked up for suicide. this led me to being separated with the diagnosis of a personality disorder, common practice for victims of sexual assault and rape. now if this had happened in the civilian side my attacker would have gone to jail, i would have been afforded some sort of mental health treatment, and the lasting effects of the assault would have been less then they have been. "the good men and women serving our country are still just men and women and this is one of those things people like to take advantage of at the cost of others." who is taking advantage of who? arent the victims taken advantage of first?

It would be nice if military fixed the system first. It is not easy to just sit down over coffee and talk about "how the rape went last night." The line between rape and consent is blurred by drugs, alcohol and lack of command emphasis. To me, the lack of command emphasis is the most damaging. Commanders don't want to think about a sexual assault occurring on their watch. I have witnessed Serious Incident Report (SIR) after SIR swept under the rug or back channeled through the Chaplain or Community Counseling Center. Sometimes it does take an "act of Congress" to get the chain of command to take care of their own. The last thing a commander wants on a briefing slide is a SIR. To have a fair chance of effective treatment there should be closure on the part of the victim- prosecution of the perpetrator. Past incidents at the Air Force Academy and Naval Academy will continue to be the trend, that is, to get closure the Military will have to be busted out by the press. Good luck on changing that with legislation.

Those "good men and women serving our country" are NOT just men and women. Because of them, you are allowed to write the comment you wrote. They put their lives on the line for YOUR freedom and earned the right to their benefits. As a Tax Payer and Veteran, I support this legislation.

I would like to comment on Mr. Throwers comment. I am a prior service member who was sexually assaulted more than once and it has affected my life deeply. I have a hard time being near ppl in public and havent had a real relationship in years. I have to be drunk just to be intimate with a man and I feel worthless pretty much all of the time. So let me just tell you that we may be just men and women but when you are repeatedly assaulted and nothing is done about it for fear of the civilian world finding out it does affect you and we have a right to recieve treatment for it! So before you go saying that a line should be drawn try putting yourself in the victims shoes. It is hard to be a productive member of society when you are terrified of people and what they can do to you!!

I'm against rape. Let there be confusion here about that. However I believe that there are many trauma inducing experiences we encounter in life (rape, assault, accidents, loss of friends and family, etc.) where would they draw the line if they began accepting coverage for things of this nature. If the law passes it should have limits in place (such as amount of time, coverage, and the sort) tax payers can't even afford to pay for their own treatment insofar as mental health is concerned more or less be expected to contribute more to our government to cover an others. If this passes what will be next ? My service to my country caused my depression ? I'm just saying. The good men and women serving our country are still just men and women and this is one of those things people like to take advantage of at the cost of others.