Iraq vet, sex harassment victim … deserter?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/15559327.htm

Female GI's case offers glimpse into hidden side of military life
BY DONNA ST. GEORGE
Washington Post
EUGENE, Ore. — Suzanne Swift remembers standing in her mother's living room, hours away from her second deployment to Iraq. Her military gear had been shipped — along with her Game Boy, DVDs and books, favorite pink pillow, stash of sunflower seeds.

She held the car keys, ready to drive to the base. Suddenly, she turned to her mother.

"I can't do this," she remembers saying. "I can't go."

The Army specialist, now 22, recalls her churning stomach. Her mother's surprise. She could not bear the idea of another year like her first. She was sexually harassed by one superior, she said, and coerced into a sexual affair with another.

"I didn't want it to happen to me again," she recalled.

Accused of going AWOL, Swift is bracing for a possible court-martial. With more than 130,000 women deployed since 2001, her case raises uncomfortable questions about how matters between the sexes play out in the military.

[theoldman]

1. I saw her being interviewed on TV. I think she will lose her case.

Sexual harassment is not an excuse to go AWOL.