Wounds You Can’t See: The Toll of Sexual Assault on Military Lives

The Center For Sexual Assault Survivors
12 minutes ago
3 min read

By Ariana Rodriguez-Goris

Veteran's Day is November 11th, 2025. A day that we acknowledge the time and sacrifice that those who served in the military and committed their lives to protecting our country experienced. We have spent decades growing as just human beings in that time we have grown to acknowledge the mental, emotional and physical toll that is taken on by military service members, but we still have a way to go in gaining a deeper understanding of just how deep rooted that trauma can be for this group of people. In this blog post we are going to take a moment to try and peel back a layer of trauma that unfortunately but often a lot of military member's become survivors of, sexual assault.

As a disclaimer we are not by any means saying that by joining the military you are going to face or experience sexual assault or misconduct. For those who have been in the military we hope to create a safe place for you to feel seen and heard in your experience because we understand that sexual assault or misconduct can leave people feeling alone and isolated. Unfortunately, like civilian sexual assault military sexual trauma (MST) is extremely under reported for the same or similar reasons to civilian under reporting. Whether that is culturally, a fear of retaliation or just a fear of acknowledging the traumatic experience they may have faced. The Department of Defense (DoD) Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) "represents the Secretary of Defense as the central authority charged with preventing sexual assault in the military and facilitating recovery for warfighters." Each fiscal year they collect data based the amount of reporting and the type of reporting that occurs in regard to military members.

A total of 8,195 reports were made, while this may seem like a lot it was actually a 4% decrease from the following year. There is not one singular reason to attribute to why the number has gone down but various military branches have made more investments in prevention programs which has led to an increase in awareness, and a strong effort to better the command climate. While it is a relief to see the number going down as stated earlier that does not mean that we are receiving the most accurate information of total number of victims the SAPRO acknowledges this. As our mission statement says we are, "committed to creating a world that is free from sexual violence, intimate partner violence, and human trafficking", so we hope to eventually see that number be at 0 since that has not yet been achieved that means there are still victims and/or survivors who may need help.

We service Newport News, Hampton, Yorktown, Poquoson, Surry, Isle of Wight and surrounding areas. The US Department of Veteran Affairs offers several resources for veterans specifically; they also emphasize that veterans who have experienced MST could be entitled to compensation. The official SAPRO website also provides resources for victims/ survivors. At The Center for Sexual Assault Survivors, we want to take the time to acknowledge the importance of being an ally we understand that changes need to be made within the culture of various military branches. It is also very important for civilians to advocate for these changes to be made because military personnel unfortunately are not always in a position to advocate for themselves without going against certain protocols or a fear of retaliation that could affect their career. As we further the discussion of various groups of people who are affected by sexual assault, we hope that ay one who comes across this blog post remembers that sexual assault affects us all.