A year after Rose McGrail joined the Army at age 19, a platoon sergeant at Fort Benning, Ga., kept her in and raped her while the rest of her company went to the field, she said. She fought him, and he mocked her because she was so small (5-feet-2).
She did not report him, she said, because “he was in my chain of command.”
“I wish the military were better communicators to women,” she said. “I had fear that if I reported, I’d be retaliated against. Also, counseling carried a big stigma.”
After that, she says, “I kind of shut down.” She drank, did drugs, whatever it took, she said, to numb herself. “I felt like nothing. Vulnerable. Less than. Angry. Hurt. Scared. Like I wasn’t protected and like I should be able to protect myself.”
She went to Fort Stewart, Ga., where a major invited her to a barbecue at his home. No one else was there, she said. He tried to rape her, and she fought him off. After that, she began having discipline problems for her attitude and would hide in the hospital where she worked. She began to drink and do drugs more.
Finally, McGrail left the Army, because “I didn’t think I could keep it together anymore.”
In 1999, a doctor’s exam triggered flashbacks of the rape, and she was in a state of panic for weeks. She hasn’t worked since.
“Everything crumbled. Like I was living on a tower of cards and someone knocked one out. Now I’m working on building something substantial.”
McGrail, who lives in Florida, was told she could not get service benefits because she had no proof of her assaults, and she is appealing that decision, records show.
Now her days are scheduled around therapy and medications. “Not what I had envisioned for my life.”
