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Soldier who says she was raped in Kuwait reportedly attempts suicide
The Olympian ^ | December 5, 2003 | ASSOCIATED PRESS

Posted on 12/05/2003 6:16:40 PM PST by yonif

Edited on 05/07/2004 9:33:27 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

A female soldier from Fort Lewis, who says she was raped in Kuwait and complained of being isolated in the attack's aftermath, has since tried to commit suicide, her mother said Thursday. Barbara Wharton, of Lancaster County, Pa., said her 23-year-old daughter tried to commit suicide Wednesday night by swallowing pills. She said her daughter sought help after the attempt.


(Excerpt) Read more at theolympian.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: Pennsylvania; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: kuwait; military; suicide; women
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To: thathamiltonwoman
Because that is exactly what she wants? I am suspicious that this incident ever happened.
21 posted on 12/05/2003 7:15:01 PM PST by Conservababe
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To: Conservababe
YOU said it....lots of us have been thinking that.
22 posted on 12/05/2003 7:21:07 PM PST by goodnesswins (A man who will fight for nothing, will NEVER be free.)
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To: yonif
This story doesn't jive at all. I'm wondering if the mom is not taking a lot of liberties editorializing her conversations with her daughter. It sounds like she just wants to get her daughter back home and is possibly embellishing her conversations in order to try to get some wheels in motion. This has got to be an enormous shock to the family back home and it isn't beyond the realm of possibility that the mom isn't 100% stable in dealing with the whole thing.
23 posted on 12/05/2003 7:28:31 PM PST by armymarinemom (I Rocked the Cradle of Death from Above)
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To: dadokane
facts speak louder than words - If a rape occurred, DNA evidence, if any, will identify an American soldier. (in addition to blood type, all service members have DNA samples taken in boot camp for identification purposes. It's the ultimate "dog tag")


As for your other points - wait, what's your other point?

24 posted on 12/05/2003 7:33:53 PM PST by PokeyJoe (You should have seen my other tagline)
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To: ExSoldier
I remember when Major General "Gunfighter" Emerson turned away the first woman assigned to 2d ID. His contention was that 2d ID was a combat unit with no place for women. It was pointed out that the woman, a chaplain, was being assigned to a service support unit, not a combat unit, to which the General replied that all the units under his command were combat units. In those days that was true.
25 posted on 12/05/2003 7:34:12 PM PST by claudiustg (Go Sharon! Go Israel!)
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To: ExSoldier
Well this 'attempt' plus the rape allegation (they must have done a rape kit on her?)
Will get her home plus either 100% Service Connected disability (or medically retired from the US Army) if she gets the right rep....for her VA hearing..
26 posted on 12/05/2003 7:37:45 PM PST by joesnuffy (Moderate Islam Is For Dilettantes)
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To: yonif
I'm more inclined to think that it's bad journalism causing the inconsistency here.

I do have to say though, I would like to think that anyone enlisted to be a warrior in the service of her country would react to being assaulted some other way than self-destruction. I wouldn't want to kill myself after this was done to me...I would want to KILL...the perp.

Come on! Do not be a passive victim! Do not let him have your mind, too! Set your teeth and badger the investigators, prosecutors, judges--find the bar steward and make him pay.

And protect other women from what he did.

THAT is courage, and I hope she finds it...or already has, and this is someone else's fruity story.
27 posted on 12/05/2003 7:39:55 PM PST by ChemistCat (No. The number of components do not equal the number of species present. But why not?)
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To: ExSoldier

The exception MIGHT be the MP's or an errant truck platoon.....like Jessica Lynch, coming under enemy fire of a direct nature.

I don't know if anything has changed in the past 10 years but when I was in, the CEWI Bn had assets tasked to support each brigade in the division.

Depending on your responsibility within these platoons you could be anywhere from the brigade rear to the FEBA.

As an example of how far forward we normally were, just for giggles my two-man team used to go capture LRPs at the NTC. Rules of engagement said they couldn't fight and most were glad to go back to the rear.

My WIFE, who had another two-man team, went with me on a few rotations. Probably 30% - 40% of the personnel in the forward deployed assets of my unit were female.

Funny thing is that the GSR folks were not allowed to be female, probably due to their given position on the battlefield. But more often than not we'd end-up to their front!

28 posted on 12/05/2003 7:42:57 PM PST by VeniVidiVici (There is nothing Democratic about the Democrat party.)
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To: Canticle_of_Deborah
She did regain consciousness after the first blow, and she does claim that the rapist hit her on the head and the face. He had to have been in front of her or on top of her to do that.
29 posted on 12/05/2003 8:03:24 PM PST by Arpege92
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To: Straight Pipes
Those of us who worked, lived, and slept with the women in the military

Hmmm?

30 posted on 12/05/2003 8:14:29 PM PST by razorback-bert
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To: dadokane
I'm as open-minded and willing to believe the victim in a rape situation as anyone, but there's something about this story that doesn't seem right.

Keep in mind that the military is not commenting on it, and all we know seems to be coming from the mother, and she's really not giving a lot of information. Maybe that's why the story doesn't make a lot of sense. After she was hit in the back of the head, and regained consciousness, was she still outside, where anybody could have happened by and seen what was going on, or was she inside somewhere? Where did he take her? Where did she wake up? How long did the episode last? Did the attack occur at night, and if so, how well lit was the area? Approximately what time did the attack occur, and how many people were likely to be in the area at the time? Do people who are knocked unconcious, then briefly regain conciousness before blacking out again remember a lot of details in between? There's a lot of information that is not being given in this story.

31 posted on 12/05/2003 8:19:40 PM PST by wimpycat ("I'm mean, but I make up for it by bein' real healthy.")
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To: yonif
her mother said Thursday. Barbara Wharton, of Lancaster County, Pa

The soldier, who has not been identified to protect her privacy, alleges she was raped late last week near the showers at Camp Udairi.

Hey you idiots, you identify the mother and home town, and you don't think that anyone can figure out who the daughter is? Sheesh.

32 posted on 12/05/2003 8:42:16 PM PST by Hillary's Lovely Legs (I have a plan. I need a dead monkey, empty liquor bottles and a vacuum cleaner.)
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Comment #33 Removed by Moderator

To: yonif
Until we the reader are told differently, however, it's just her word.

and so she is not to be believed at this stage.

since she's an American Soldier, let us give her the benefit of the doubt that she indeed is telling the truth, let's take her at her word as a U.S. Soldier, rather than positing "could be's" that amount to meaningless speculation.

be HONEST: were her account that an iraqi did this to her, freerepub would be buried in posts unqualifiedly believing her story, because it buttresses support for continuing the war against these brown-skinned sub-humans.

34 posted on 12/05/2003 10:57:45 PM PST by dadokane (Please: NO profanity, NO personal attacks, NO racism or violence in posts. HATE OK.)
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To: dadokane; seamole; Hillary's Lovely Legs; Arpege92; VeniVidiVici; lionzgate; CheneyChick
There is this. It was just posted from her aunt or uncle.

Female Stryker brigade soldier alleges rape

35 posted on 12/05/2003 11:13:25 PM PST by leadpenny
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To: Canticle_of_Deborah
And another thing, if he was masked and she was gagged, what was the point of hitting her and knocking her out? She couldn't scream or identify him. Plus, it seems counterproductive to bind a person's extremities if you intend to commit rape.

Rapists often beat their victims far more than is strictly necessary. More than a few serial rapists have been known to bind their victims. Read something by John Douglas. You'll learn way more than you can stomach about rapists and their MOs. Hell, just read a newspaper.

36 posted on 12/05/2003 11:27:47 PM PST by Britton J Wingfield (TANSTAAFL)
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To: wimpycat
There's a lot of information that is not being given in this story.

It's a newspaper article, not a deposition. I wouldn't advise basing an assumption on it, like so many here have already done.

37 posted on 12/05/2003 11:31:49 PM PST by Britton J Wingfield (TANSTAAFL)
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To: dadokane
because it buttresses support for continuing the war against these brown-skinned sub-humans.

And your reason and motive for this statement is....?

38 posted on 12/06/2003 1:23:16 AM PST by little jeremiah
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To: VeniVidiVici
"I don't know if anything has changed in the past 10 years...."

Silly ME! I got off active duty in 1984 and (20 years ago) and out of the reserves in 1994 (10 years ago). Everything (even and maybe especially institutions that safeguard our freedoms) EVOLVES to reflect the times. Just because it wasn't done when I was in the military, doesn't mean it's not done now. Just as at one time there were no (or very few) black soldiers....and then later they were kept segregated into their own units.....

Racial integration of the battlefield is a good thing, providing strength and unity. Gender integration will probably not have much effect on our warfighting capabilities. However, it will affect women in exactly this manner. Therefore when a woman voluntarily places herself in harms way and then fails to safeguard herself to prevent such atrocities....I am afraid I shall not feel much sympathy for that situation. This is going to force me into yet another modification of my world view. Everything evolves. ~sigh~

39 posted on 12/06/2003 7:17:28 AM PST by ExSoldier (When the going gets tough, the tough go cyclic.)
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To: yonif
As with everyone else, I too detect an odor of seafood coming from this story.

Other possibilities coming to mind are:

- An interupted S&M session

- An S&M session in which she was tricked. I recall laughing my butt off while on a trip to South Florida and reading in the local paper of some gay guy who met two other gay guys who were reportedly photographers and wanted to do a shoot for some gay mag. They went out on the weekend to some empty construction site and things progressed well with the photo shoot until he realized that after having handcuffed him to a peice of machinery, sodomized him, written obscene things on his nude body and urinated on him, the photographers took their cameras and left him handcuffed and chained to the peice of equipment. He spent the night chained to the equipment and was found the next morning by construction workers arriving at the jobsite.

- Finally, first onset of mental illness, is very common in her age group. Military gets a bad rap for these ticking genetic time bombs.

40 posted on 12/06/2003 7:41:52 AM PST by fso301
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