Soldiers Raped by Other Men 24 08 2009 Men

Gentlemen with MST, we know you are there. We work with some of you, and we know the isolation and shame that you have been feeling for so long. We also know that now is the time to give up that shame and regain the peace and joy that is just on the other side of all the pain.
You are not alone. 4% of male soldiers experience MST¹, which equates to almost 1 in 20 of you. The VA says that more than 50% of the veterans who have screened positive for MST are men.² Thanks to your sheer numbers, more men have experienced MST than women (there are almost 22 million male veterans, compared to less than 2 million female veterans³). You are not alone.
Call us if you need someone to talk to who will listen with understanding and patience. If you want to talk privately and securely to other men with MST, please go here to request an invite to a confidential, all-male, online message board. They are waiting, because it is time to come home.
A male survivor who is also an MST advocate has this to say to you:
“The Silent Wounded. That is what I call us: the MST survivor . . . It is difficult to explain what it is like to enlist in the military service for our country – male or female – to be motivated to serve as an honorable duty. Our discharge papers may say under “honorable conditions,” but we feel no honor . . .
“The pain in one’s soul from being a rape survivor is no different from man to woman – the shame and guilt we feel are equally the same. Because of the way society places a stigma on male sexual assault that is compounded by the military comradeship and brotherhood instilled in us from our first day, we remain the “silent wounded.” Because of the way we were brought up to be men – the male image – these things are not supposed to happen. That is why we remain silent.
“The silence continues to victimize us . . . [but] once I found a voice through the use of the internet, I found myself with a freedom that had not been mine since the attacks on my body in 1969. I was able to speak out where once I felt I would never say a word. To understand the pain inside of you – the silence – it is like a poison and continues to eat at your soul . . . the written word of your voice gives you strength. I believe that is what the author of this web-site is offering you . . . the male survivor, to have a way to speak – to purge ourselves from the poison.
“Find that freedom. The more each of us speak up and say “that happened to me too!” the more our voice is heard further and further from the walls of our silence.
“We need to open up the eyes of everyone. The silence needs to change – awareness of how sexual trauma affects males needs to advance. We are hurting; we should quit doing it alone.”


¹Source: “Sexual Assault Among Male Veterans.” Psychiatric Times. 1 April 2005. <http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/55225?pageNumber=3>
²Source: “Military Sexual Trauma.” National Center for PTSD. <http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain/ncdocs/fact_shts/military_sexual_trauma_general.html?opm=1&rr=rr1758&srt=d&echorr=true>

³Source: “Veterans Numbers from the Census Bureau.” The Tacoma News Tribune. 16 October 2008. <http://blogs.thenewstribune.com/military/2008/10/16/veterans_numbers_from_the_census_bureau>