September 19th, 2006
101 days since her
arrest.
August 23, 2006
It has now been 74
days since Suzanne
was taken in
handcuffs to jail...
July 28, 2006
Things continue to
move forward for
Suzanne...
July 13, 2006
Suzannewear plus...
July 10, 2006
Suzanne joined the
Army with stars in
her eyes...
June 26, 2006
I got to spend a day
and night with
Suzanne today...
Perpetuating the cycle of military sexual violence....
171 days since Suzanne's "arrest" and the Army, General Dubick and Colonel Miller specifically,
are bound and determined to ignore the fact that their Sergeant sexually abused my daughter.
Instead, they are making her abuser's prophetic words to me daughter a reality. " Swift, you look
like you are going to tell someone about what happened between us. Nobody will believe you."
Suzanne believed him then and now she is seeing that he was speaking from experience. By
ignoring the fact that Suzanne was sexually abused in a combat zone in Iraq by her squad leader,
an Non Commissioned Officer who took an OATH to protect the soldiers working beneath him, they
are giving other sexual predators in the military the green light that victims of sexual abuse in the
military are systematically punished and not believed while the perpetrators go free to abuse
again. Shame on them. When listening to story after story the same thing comes up, the
perpetrators use fear and intimidation and tell the victim that no one will believe them. This is a
monstrous epidemic and still the lack of care and understanding shocks me. Even though we know
this is not a gender specific occurrence, the majority of military sexual violence is perpetrated
against women. It is true that women are not safe to serve their country in the military. Especially,
while we have command staff that continue to "sweep under the carpet" these victims stories, both
ignoring their painful traumas and exacerbating the pain and suffering by not believing them....
Click here to read more...
A short update with a longer one to follow.
Suzanne faced her court martial with strength and respect.
I was more than proud of her.
She was sentenced to 30 days in prison and was stripped of all her
rank.
Being stripped of her rank was the most devastating thing for her.
She is being held at the prison at Bangor Naval base in
Washington.
She can have visitors on Sundays from 1-3 PM. Because of her
sister having a
baby any day we will not be able to go visit her for a while.
I cried the entire drive home and all night last night. trying to
regain my
strength.
This will be the second Christmas the Army has taken Suzanne
away from us.
Christmas 2004 she was in Iraq.
PLEASE write letters of love and support to Suzanne. I want her
to get mail
everyday.
Here is her address:
Suzanne Swift
2020 Guardfish St.
Silverdale, WA 98315
No fancy stuff and no packages. Card are good, but no glitter or
extra glue
things. Expect your mail to be read and monitored.
I am writing a longer update with the plan for the future and a
description of
the court martial...I am just too exhausted to write more tonight.
Peace~
Sara Rich, M.S.W
http://suzanneswift.org/
