Lifting the burden of past experiences

Lifting the burden of past experiences

CJ Scarlet:

I had been raped by my recruiter, and had not ever told anybody, and not ever dealt with that, and had just kept quiet about that, because I thought that it was my fault. I thought that my recruiter was, I mean I looked up to him. I admired him, I worshipped him and so when that happened, and I found out later that was a common practice there. I met a lot of women who have experienced similar things with their recruiters. You know I was devastated, and it took me a long time in counseling to get help.

You know when you are backed into the file cabinet every day and when you are groped at every day, you can laugh it off to a certain extent, but it weighs on you, it weighs on you. It adds one more layer to the idea that somehow you are not worthy, somehow you are not as much of a Marine, somehow you don’t belong there because you are a woman and that is what you are there for is to be harassed.

I know there are stories of women who are coming back who experienced awful things and I am really glad to see that the VA is taking this seriously, that the military is taking this seriously and they are providing the resources they need. Life gets so good when you take the time for yourself to do the healing for yourself. If you had the courage to go through military training and devote your life to your country and be willing to die for your country, you have the courage to do this. You are strong enough to do this.