Col Juliet,
Lee and I will be home on Thursday. I’d like the weekend to rest up and gather my thoughts before we speak. Let me know what works for you the week of August 8th.
I’ve attached a quick facts sheet about MST (military sexual trauma) to help give you some background as to what I have been struggling with throughout my career.
As a SrA, I pressed sexual assault charges against two of the 4 men who assaulted me. Both of them resigned in lieu of courts‐martials. One of them transferred to Pease and was working at the Pentagon last I knew. I was raped by my recruiter but he left the Maine Air National Guard after I contacted him and told him that I was going to report him. The other man was a technical school instructor (active duty) so we couldn’t press charges against him. I didn’t even know his first name.
Although what happened to me was back in 1996-1998, I was still forced to leave the 265th because I was retaliated against and physically assaulted in a local bar in Portland in 1999.
I transferred to the 267th CBCS in Cape Cod where they were told that I was a troublemaker. I went through hell there as well but I didn’t want to interrupt my career progression because it would have taken that much longer to get my TSgt stripe. I was also working on my Master’s degree and dependent on the GI bill and the Student Loan Repayment program.
After informal inquiries as to why I couldn’t get my stripe while others who showed up late and didn’t do a quarter the work I did were getting theirs, they begrudgingly gave me my TSgt stripe. Shortly thereafter, I was forced to again informally inquire why they wanted to make a man that I trained and who had two years experience compared to my eight the Team Chief. Again, I begrudgingly was given the Team Chief position but set up for failure. I was eventually presented with a bogus LOC and they threatened to take my TSgt stripe because “I didn’t know how to troubleshoot.” They gave no examples in the LOC and couldn’t provide me with any examples when asked. I had had enough and literally thanked them for putting it in writing and contacted JAG. I was referred to the EEO office and filed an informal complaint. My Commander “found no evidence to support my claim” but told me that I could have anything I wanted. I wanted out of that Squadron. I eventually decided to change career fields because I could not go back to the 265th given the fact that the man who orchestrated the attack on me in Portland was still working there and was now a MSgt. By the way, this is the same Maine Air National Guardsman who was indicted for leaving a woman for dead on a road after she fell off his motorcycle.
I began receiving more intense treatment and medication from the VA in 2006. I eventually reported this to the Medical Clinic and that is how Echo Mike and Col Victor found out about everything.
I had to get waivers to go to drill. I was working for Col Victor full-time at the time so it was imperative that I get the waiver so that I could continue bringing in an income.
I am hoping that if I lay out the background that it will help you to understand why Col Victor’s behavior was so inappropriate. My career ended the day that Echo Mike pushed me back in a corner with no way out. I wanted to punch his lights out for treading on me after all the work that I did to get prepared for the ORE/ORI. But in lieu of punching him out, I went to the bathroom and cried. I was having a panic attack when we went into ALARM RED. I couldn’t breathe and an inspector told me to take the mask off. I was automatically sent to the medical clinic where Chief Sierra helped me work through it. She knew I had PTSD and fortunately an inspector validated why I got so upset at Echo. He told her what I already knew. I was the only one in the group who knew what was going on and that is because I did all the preparation for it. Echo was in a different section. Lima Bravo never lifted a finger to help because he spent all his time on deployments or working on his PRIME BEEF spreadsheet.
(I was medically retired from the U.S. Air Force for Post Traumatic Stress from miliitary crime in December 2010 with the help of Senator Olympia Snowe after roughly 15 years of service with the Maine and Massachusetts Air National Guard)
RELATED LINKS:
‘A Place to Begin’ by Jennifer Norris, USAF Retired [Video]
“I Just Want to Disappear”: The End Result of a Lifetime of Dehumanization and Abuse
Jennifer and Lee: Until Death Do Us Part
Socials:
Facebook: @ftoxicpeople
Twitter: @ftoxicpeople
Instagram: @ftoxicpeople
YouTube: @fktoxicpeople
Other websites: Military Justice for All
Jennifer and Lee 