Tonight: Investigating Domestic Violence In The Military

By: Christine Lagorio
Topics: Sneak Preview

(CBS)

Since 2001, thousands of wives and girlfriends have been assaulted at the hands of the soldiers they loved. Tonight on the a special primetime edition of the CBS Evening News, Katie Couric investigates a growing crisis in the U.S. military: the staggering numbers of military wives who have been beaten, raped or even killed since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began.

And behind those statistics are the faces of many survivors. Katie spoke with one military wife, Jessacia Patton, about how her husband changed in Iraq, the ensuing abuse … and how the military failed to help.

Last night, we posted a preview clip of one of Katie's interviews with a military wife who is a survivor of domestic violence. Below, a new clip, in which Katie asks Patton what she believes to be the military's greatest flaw in dealing with domestic violence.

Watch that clip here:

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by ProActiveVoices April 5, 2009 7:27 PM EDT: http://proactivevoices.blogspot.com/; Reply to this comment


by successatbest March 17, 2009 8:59 PM EDT: I'm commenting today because it took me awhile to come up with the words to say. My ex-husband who is a military police officer beat me on a daily basis. Hog tied me, punched me in the face, broke our daughter's leg and did some horrible things to the children and I. The military covered his tracks and the San Diego Court, that suppose to protect victims gave custody of our children to him. I haven't seen our 3 children in 9 years. He still controls everything and have brainwashed the children in believing I didn't want them.

To this date, the military is backing him and the courts refused to look at my evidence of his abuse, his violation of the court order. The judge in my case, would NOT even look at my documented medical records, statements or listen to witnesses who were there when he dragged me down the neighborhood on the sidewalk beating me. This happened in military housing.

Domestic Violence is very high in military families, especially those who have spouses that are military policemen.; Reply to this comment


by wdcotto January 29, 2009 10:46 PM EST: I am sorry But Katie you missed the chance to make a difference. you didnt dig or expand, you basically excepted the political type answeres and stopped. If you wanted to help our military, you missed, big time!; Reply to this comment


by ericmichael1 January 29, 2009 6:10 PM EST: Katie,

Violence against women is an American problem, not just a military problem. And it is not just a recent one, either.

I can still remember nearly 30 years ago as an enlisted man in the M.P.s. I was off duty one night when I heard loud shouting in the barracks hallway. I found a pregnant soldier and her boyfriend, a fellow M.P., arguing. He shoved her so hard she almost went to the floor.

I stepped in between them and in so doing violated the unwritten code of "no see, no hear". I came to the brink of fighting him to stop him from doing anything else to her. I then walked her to her car and tried to convince her to report him.

She refused to make any charge against him. She was back with him the next night. I think that she was as much in denial as he was about the problem.

I came out of it with my knightly naivete tarnished and with a youth''s perplexity: why do women put up with this abuse? And why did no one but me in the entire barracks floor open their door and rise to the occassion to stop something like this from happening?

Eric; Reply to this comment


by debbyatfafny January 29, 2009 11:58 AM EST: Not to lessen any victims of violence,over and over again your comments repeat a message: When a male asks for help he is considered weak, mocked and punished. When he snaps he is condemned and jailed. (Does anyone notice the rise of murder/suicides?)There is a terrible rise of military men coming home only to find out that their wife has moved on, taking his house, children, hope and future with her. He asks for help and he is punished, told to suck it up and pay his child support. Equality is not equal when it comes to our sensitivity to all victims of DV.
Teen violence is up too and guess who are the majority of victims? cdc dot gov
When is someone going to do a story on this?; Reply to this comment


by debbyatfafny January 29, 2009 11:38 AM EST: Not to lessen any victims of violence,over and over again your comments repeat a message: When a male asks for help he is considered weak, mocked and punished. When he snaps he is condemned and jailed. (Does anyone notice the rise of murder/suicides?)There is a terrible rise of military men coming home only to find out that their wife has moved on, taking his house, children, hope and future with her. He asks for help and he is punished, told to suck it up and pay his child support. Equality is not equal when it comes to our sensitivity to all victims of DV.
Teen violence is up too and guess who are the majority of victims? www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/yrbs/pdf/yrbss07_mmwr.pdf
When is someone going to do a story on this?; Reply to this comment


by akirayamanak January 29, 2009 4:52 AM EST: As my personal and supposed opinion,
Surely our and younger generations may become vulnerable to battlefield stress. our former generations had faced death more often by incurable diseases, starvation and fiercer battles whose casualties were more hundreds per a day. We are more civilized in a sense.
Time has changed. People has changed. Soldier may have to change. Namely, Soldier may have to be more qualified in some meanings. While the quantity may be down, the quality must be up.
We cannot recently expect so-called big war that needs the draft partly because of nuclear weapons and more civilized society.
From now on, like Middle Age, the warrior peoples may be limited in the human society.; Reply to this comment


by lauracurtiss January 29, 2009 2:04 AM EST: THANK YOU "berowler"! This is something that was posted on http://militarytimes.com/forums/showthread.php?p=181313 about my son.

It is the last blog message that bothered me; not the derogatory remarks as I expected some due to how this grew (though relieved it was the opposite reaction). This came from a fellow solder who knew my son and also knew what he was going through.

Though he makes it clear he supports my son in getting what he''s earned he has also made it obvious that my son was treated very badly after he asked for help after his 2nd combat tour. And, not surprisingly, supports those in command who did this. I have to admit my son probably would have felt the same in earlier years.

Instead of medically discharging my son, as they were recommended to by the military, they instead targeted, humiliated and mentally abused him. What is worse is that he was already doing this to himself due to his loyalty to the military. The Army is all he had ever thought of and loved doing since high school. What they did was cruel and it''s those who are the most loyal who are targeted once they no longer are of use to the military.; Reply to this comment


by lauracurtiss January 29, 2009 1:36 AM EST: One last comment. Thank you so very much to Carissa Picard, Military Spouses for Change: http://www.militaryspousesforchange.com/
http://militaryspousesforchange.blogspot.com/. This non profit org has done wonders for so many.

Chuck Luther, one of the very proud Iraqi Freedom veterans in the PBS documentary, who has become a very important part of our family and my son''s "brother in arms". He''s gotten my son, and our family, along with Carissa, through some hellish times. And Thank You so very much to Attorney Jason Perry, http://www.peblawyer.com, who took my son''s case on pro bono due to his outrage at not only what my son is going through but so many others. Most of all thank you to all of you all over the US who have shown more support then we could have ever imagined.; Reply to this comment


by lauracurtiss January 29, 2009 1:24 AM EST: Since this site does not allow for lengthy messages I''ll try to be short but get to an important point. My son is far from the only service member going through this, which means there are many potential victims out there, created by the intentional ignorance of our military. Please visit this story on PBS, which is what woke me up and I''ve been on a rampage since. I will not allow our service members who''ve planned they''re lives so loyally around the military, and their families, only to be treated and thrown away like garbage. We are creating another long many generation of broken, or homeless and worse vets.

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/424/index.html

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/424/transcript.html; Reply to this comment