It was a horrible situation to be in

It was a horrible situation to be in

Marylyn:

I knew I was not the only one, but I did know that I had a unique situation because remember what I said, I did not know these people prior to coming there. I was just kind of planted down there because of the job, and the Army had the need for somebody with this MOS job title. So, I mean it's a very... it's a feeling. You just feel so disempowered, you know, and I remember in the initial occasions when it happened, I would go and report the incidences to my higher command, and it seemed to fall on deaf ears to the point where I just stopped reporting the things that happened. It was just... I remember many of the incidences like they were just in the last 15 minutes, and it's 20 years. I remember the faces, the words, the smells, the negative, unwarranted, unsolicited touches. I remember all of that.

And I have people I call friends, women Veterans, that even had worse than I did. They were... I have some that were raped on one occasion or on multiple occasions and just really fear for their lives, and what can you do? You’re out there. We were in a mound of dirt about 10 feet high, and there was nowhere we could go. We couldn’t drive. We couldn’t go out wherever. There was nowhere to go. There was nothing outside that open end of the mound of dirt but the Bedouins and the camels, and there was a road, but it was unforeseen if what was down that road was worse than what was inside our campsite. So, it was just a horrible predicament to be in.