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U.S.A. / Texas / Austin / May 2010 Regina Vasquez – Born 3/12/1978 - Marine corps. While training for Marine combat, one weekend the Platoon Sergeant gave some ecstasy to two marines. The marines put the ecstasy in the women glasses. In their altered state, Regina and two other women soldiers were raped, and the sexual acts were recorded on a video tape. On the same day the three women were blackmailed and were told that if they reported the facts, the videos would have been shown publicly. Some time later, Regina, whilst still in the military, got pregnant. Despite her needs as a pregnant woman, she received no pre-natal care whatsoever, as well as being constantly harassed sexually by other militaries who knew about her pregnancy state. In an advanced pregnancy state, when she was medically ordered in bed, no one brought her food, and each time she walked out of bed to get food on her own, she was written down by the other militaries on duty. No one cared that she was pregnant. Exposed to high levels of stress, as well as chemicals she was in contact with while carrying out her duty, her pregnancy was severely affected and her son was born with cerebral palsy, a condition which needs important treatments. When she was discharged from the military, the chance for a claim ceased to be valid as a result of the statute of limitations. As a result, the government, who would have been held responsible of these events if the mother had any other job other than being in the military, is not offering any support for her son's treatments. © Gabriele Galimberti / Anzenberger
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U.S.A. / Connecticut / New Haven / May 2010 Candice Harrington, 36 years old. Deployed in Kuwait for 8 months and in a classifield base in Afghanistan for 6 months. She has been raped several times and reported the crime to her superior. Was sent home with a honorable discharge in the attempt to cover up the abuse. She's still waiting for the verdict. She wants to go back in the military otherwise, she says, they won. © Gabriele Galimberti / Anzenberger
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U.S.A. / New York / Brooklyn / May 2010 Jaqueline Cutting, 39 years old. Deployed in Iraq for several months. © Gabriele Galimberti / Anzenberger
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U.S.A. / New York / Manhattan / May 2010 Sandra Lee, 37 Years old. © Gabriele Galimberti / Anzenberger
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U.S.A. / Texas / Austin / May 2010 Betty Kilbrigh, 38 years old. She joined the military in 1989. Specialized in military transport, che drives jeep, trailer trucks, tunks and heavy equipment transporters. She was deployed in a base on Saudi Arabia - Iran border, where she was raped. She says: Sexual harassment is a constant practice, if they didn't respec us at the base, how could they respect us and protect us in the battle field? © Gabriele Galimberti / Anzenberger
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U.S.A. / Texas / Austin / May 2010 Lisa Morgan Wallace, 29 years old, deployed in the navy, on guided missile cruiser in charge of anti submarine warfare, in the persian gulf close to the coast of Iraq. Between 2004 and 2005 Lisa is stationed in a ship with 600 men and two other women soldiers. During that period, Lisa was sexually assaulted many times, though her first assault already happened in 2001 at the naval accademy. All the three girls deployed on the ship developed serious panic disorders ad severe stress for the trauma. One of thegirls became suicidal. After a long period of incidents, all of them broke down and were put into interrogation, after which they were discharged. It took many years to regan a normal life. © Gabriele Galimberti / Anzenberger
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U.S.A. / Texas / Austin / May 2010 Betty Stuart, 56 years old. Deployed in Hawaii and Korea. Sexual harassment is an ordinary practice from the boot camp. Blackmailed in several ways by her drill sergeant in his attempt to convince her to have sex with him. Betty gets married to a soldier in a short period in which she is stationed in San Antonio. Later, Betty and her husband are both deployed to Korea. After some time things change, her husband becomes violent and abuses her. Betty decides to report the facts and her military career comes to an instant end. She steps down in orders and asks her commander in chief to be relocated, as a normal practice. In respect of the line of command, being her husband in a higher rank than her first sergeant, her request is denied. © Gabriele Galimberti / Anzenberger
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U.S.A. / New York / Brooklyn / May 2010 Candice Harrington, 36 years old. Deployed in Kuwait for 8 months and in a classifield base in Afghanistan for 6 months. She has been raped several times and reported the crime to her superior. Was sent home with a honorable discharge in the attempt to cover up the abuse. She's still waiting for the verdict. She wants to go back in the military otherwise, she says, they won. © Gabriele Galimberti / Anzenberger
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U.S.A. / Texas / Austin / May 2010 Regina Vasquez – Born 3/12/1978 - Marine corps. While training for Marine combat, one weekend the Platoon Sergeant gave some ecstasy to two marines. The marines put the ecstasy in the women glasses. In their altered state, Regina and two other women soldiers were raped, and the sexual acts were recorded on a video tape. On the same day the three women were blackmailed and were told that if they reported the facts, the videos would have been shown publicly. Some time later, Regina, whilst still in the military, got pregnant. Despite her needs as a pregnant woman, she received no pre-natal care whatsoever, as well as being constantly harassed sexually by other militaries who knew about her pregnancy state. In an advanced pregnancy state, when she was medically ordered in bed, no one brought her food, and each time she walked out of bed to get food on her own, she was written down by the other militaries on duty. No one cared that she was pregnant. Exposed to high levels of stress, as well as chemicals she was in contact with while carrying out her duty, her pregnancy was severely affected and her son was born with cerebral palsy, a condition which needs important treatments. When she was discharged from the military, the chance for a claim ceased to be valid as a result of the statute of limitations. As a result, the government, who would have been held responsible of these events if the mother had any other job other than being in the military, is not offering any support for her son's treatments. © Gabriele Galimberti / Anzenberger
// G.I. Jane’s other war
One out of every three american women soldiers serving in Iraq or Afghanistan has been the victim of sexual abuse on the part of male U.S. soldiers and between 71% to 90% say they were the object of harassment by their male comrades-in-arms, subjected to constant denigration, insults and vulgar slurs.’ So writes Helen Benedict, Columbia University professor, in her book, The Lonely Soldier, the private war of women serving in Iraq, which has already unleashed fierce debate in the United States. In war zones, the ratio of woman soldiers is one to every ten men. “feeling as though you are a target 24 hours a day is not easy,’ Helen Benedict explains. ‘the message the men are sending is ‘we don’t respect you. we don’t want you here.’ then comes the physical assault, and finally rape.’ According to army statistics, ‘only’ 0.83 out of every thousand women in war zones have been the victims of sexual abuse. However, the army also makes it clear that those are just the reported cases, and that 90% of rapes are kept quiet. Usually, the aggressors are the women’s superiors, and most often they are never brought to trial. In addition to all of this, it is also more difficult for women to gain access to health care, as only 14% of military clinics have departments dedicated to women’s health issues. With the assistance of American associations that provide help and psychological support to female veterans suffering from MST (military sexual trauma), I carried out extensive research for this project. I was able to establish contact with many of these women, veterans of the latest wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also of earlier wars, all of them with stories to tell of rape and sexual abuse. I met with these women, interviewed them, and photographed them.
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