McSally speaks on sexual harassment within the military

Close to one month after Senator M artha M cSally confessed she had been raped by a senior officer while serving in the Air Force, she made a visit to the Yuma Air Station.

On Wednesday, she met with the Yuma 50 group and c ommanders to hear their perspective on changes that need to be made to address sexual assault in the military.

“Everything that it takes in order to be an effective military unit it’s all the responsibility to the commander and so if you have these attacks in your own ranks, blue on blue attacks, where you have one person in the military that’s committing a crime on the other, this is not only bad for the victim but this bad for the mission and bad for the military,” said Sen. McSally.

When asking McSally why she wanted to share her experience with sexual assault, she said she wanted to give power to the people also affected to speak out.

She is making plans with bases to improve the timeline between when an assault happens, the investigation, and the final result.

McSally said she is also trying to better understand what can improve the investigative process and make it more thorough.

After that phase is complete, she will then go into education and prevention.

McSally also addressed the emergency declaration signed by Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls.

She called for Congress to act now and addressed three loopholes that need to be fixed within our immigration system.

“The first one is to return unaccompanied minors to countries that are not contiguous to the United States. The second is based on the updated Flores settlement we can no longer detain a child with an adult more than 20 days and for CBP and ICE that’s actually 72 hours,” said McSally.

“For the asylum process, the standard for the initial interview needs to be raised,” she said.

McSally will also participate in a meet and greet with the Marines at the Marine Corps Air Station.

McSally also met with Yuma 50. The group is a community outreach and education campaign bringing together a broad group of community and civic leaders, businesses, organizations, military support groups and private citizens across all political affiliations.

Acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan also spoke to this issue Tuesday.

In a memo to the leadership of the U.S. m ilitary, he wrote that he intends to examine sexual assault in the force.

He said: “Our approach to eliminating sexual assault is holistic and includes efforts to prevent this crime, support, and care for our victims, and ensure a robust and comprehensive military justice process.”

After revealing her story of sexual assault one month ago, McSally hopes that honesty and events like those today will help give others a voice as well .