Posted on 05/04/2014 2:33:36 PM PDT by naturalman1975
ALLEGATIONS that 220 child sailors at the navy’s West Australian training base were raped or brutalised, and that more than 70 young officer cadets at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra suffered sexual or other abuse, are so serious they will be tabled in federal parliament.
So far, almost 500 former and serving Defence Force members have received reparation payments of up to $50,000 for damage caused by the abuse they suffered — a cost to Defence of more than $21 million.
As well, 45 cases have been referred to state and territory police forces for possible prosecution. They feature allegations of rape and other assaults on females and males; serious threats; stalking and intimidation with intent to cause fear; and burglary with intent to carry out an assault.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.com.au ...
Well, it sounds like “didn’t need to ask and did tell”.
Sounds like the high-school based “Junior” reserve officers training units that we still have in the U.S. Not active service, but trainees/cadets that haven’t yet formally enlisted.
It's how it used to be done. A lot of people joined at 15 or 16 and made good careers out of it. Though it is horrifying that anybody was abused in this way, there are also hundreds or even thousands of us who are extremely glad we were given the chance to join up as boys, and had very good careers as a result of it.
I don't know what went wrong in these cases - but it looks like something very serious did go wrong. There were a lot of cases where it went very right as well.
They no longer take people as young as that, but you can still join the Australian Defence Forces at 17, when you're still legally a child.
No, these were full time Officer Cadets (Cadet Midshipman) or Junior Recruits. They were full time sailors. Lived on based, and trained every day. They even went to sea, and some went to war (although policy said they were supposed to keep you out of a war zone until you were 18, I know plenty who served on ships in Vietnam younger than that).
That would make the boy boinkers...let me think...oh yeah, gay...woukd it not?
Going back to the 1950s, officers began their training at 13.
US military prep programs were integrated into scouting and local high schools with plenty of local adult oversight.
I think 17 with parents consent was the minimum age for the military proper.
We also had (and still have) Cadet Programs, which operate more like something like the Scouts - one afternoon or evening of parade a week, and camps, throughout the year. Some run in schools, and some in the community in general.
But that was separate from the actual practice of taking in boys as Cadet Midshipmen, or Junior Recruits, to train full time on Naval bases, for eventual deployment as sailors to the fleet.
Max Pirkis as Midshipman Blakeney played such a role to perfection in “Master and Commander: Far Side of the World”.
I worried a bit first time I saw it, then realized that Captain Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) was a man of duty first, last and always, with a dash of humanity to give.
It turned out to be a wonderful story, IMHO, and I would urge anyone who hasn’t seen it, do so by all means.
Quite right. If you aspired to a commission then it was to your advantage to start early as promotions to Lieutenant were tied to a certain minimum years service at sea. Fathers enrolled their sons on the ship's books, although they did not always take them to sea. But, the sons of nobility, the military, and the middle class often went to sea quite young and "learned the ropes". If under the protection of a good Captain, it helped set them up for a promising and perhaps lucrative career. But, in a bad ship, it could be a nightmare.
The world's homosexuals have been unleased against young soldiers, sailors, and Marines and the system will not likely protect them. Much on the increase in sexual assualts in the U.S. Army comes from male on male assaults with the victims being junior enlisted soldiers. Bet you haven't read that in the New York Times.
Child sailors? What age?
Got it. I was sure surprised.
Potentially as young as 13, depending on how far back they are going (13 year olds were admitted for officer training up until the late 1950s). More likely 15, 16, and 17 year olds - the Navy was still taking boys at that age until 1986 (and still takes some 17 year olds).
I joined just before my 16th birthday, but experienced nothing like this. I’m horrified. I always felt very well protected from anything like that. More protected than I wanted to be at times (”Here’s your lemonade. No rum for you.”)
Excellent, "Das Boot" is also first rate.
It’s now coming out how much abuse there has been in the British public (private) school system as well.
Shipping of impressionable pre-teens and teens to those who choose to work with them has always been a dicey proposition.
Are these current cases, perpetrated in the last few years, or cases dating back to as long ago as there are still victims living?
Yes, it was standard practice in the Royal Navy to start Cadet Midshipmen or Cabin Boys at a young age. See Horatio Hornblower. Any such practice can be abused if you have a power-mad or abusive Captain, but on the whole it worked out well.
It was also common practice for youngsters to start out very early aboard the trading schooners in Maine and other coastal ports, often sailing aboard their fathers’ ships and learning the family business.
That “homosexuals in the Navy” thing not working out?
From what I can see, the last cases are in the 1970s and 1980s. People younger than myself - and I don’t consider myself old yet.
Men in their fifties. Maybe some in their forties.
Glad you’re here to give us this kind of background, mate!.
Then its somewhat like the priest scandal, happened a couple of decades ago?
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