“I’ve been destroyed by serving my country and am tired of fighting an endless battle,” said Davidson, who suffers from depression, anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, nightmares, and suicidal ideation. None of her attackers were charged or punished, she said. She served from 1988 to 1995.

Decades later, the Vernon resident wants to talk about her assaults “because no one else should go through anything that I experienced. I want to advocate for other women who experienced the same. It’s got to stop.”

A total of 8,866 service members reported sexual assaults in fiscal 2021, a 13% increase from 2020, according to a Department of Defense (DOD) report. However, the reporting rate has decreased in recent years, dropping to one in five survivors reporting sexual assault in 2021 compared to one in three in 2018 and 2016.

“Less than half of women perceived their leaders as acting in a fully supportive manner after they reported” unwanted sexual contact, the report states.

The DOD reported that 8.4% of active-duty women and 1.5% of men said they experienced unwanted sexual contact. Based on those rates, the DOD estimates that 35,875 service members were victims of unwanted sexual contact in 2021. This compares to 20,500 in 2018 and 14,900 in 2016, the most recent years prevalence estimates were made. The number of men sexually assaulted more than doubled in three years, with about 16,620 men sexually assaulted in 2021 compared to 7,500 in 2018, according to the report.

“Sexual assault and sexual harassment remain persistent and corrosive problems,” the report states.

Advocates expressed hope that new laws will prompt more reports and increase prosecutions. A proposal to strip significant roles of commanders in cases of sexual assault and other felonies was given final approval by the Senate this week. It strengthens reforms passed by Congress last year that will require prosecutorial decisions for those crimes to be made by independent military prosecutors.

The law that was passed last year retained commanders’ authority over several aspects of the felony judicial process. That “makes the system susceptible to bias and undermines trust,” U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, (D-NY) said in a statement.

To shine a light on the military judicial system, a lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court in Connecticut to obtain military prosecution data for sexual assault and other serious crimes. The plaintiffs are the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center (CVLC) and Protect Our Defenders, a national advocacy organization. Yale Law School’s Veterans Legal Services Clinic is representing the plaintiffs.

“We already know that sexual assault is under-prosecuted across the board,” said Alden Pinkham, a CVLC attorney. “It’s possible the military is doing less,” she said.

Last May, the plaintiffs asked the military for the data under the Freedom of Information Act, and only the Marine Corps has provided information. So that comparisons can be made, they are also seeking data from civilian prosecutors near military bases in New York, Virginia, Texas and California on how they handle criminal prosecutions of military members, Pinkham said.

Davidson, 53, said the military needs to “heavily reconstruct the legal system and how they punish violators.” She also called for women to have a more significant role in the military judicial system.

She was 18 years old and serving as an enlisted member at Travis Air Force base in California when she was gang raped by five officers and two enlisted men. At a party, they spiked her drink with a drug, then moved her to a motel where they taped her mouth, tied her hands, and took turns raping her while cheering each other on, she said. A motel housekeeper found her the next morning and called the military police, who brought her to a hospital.

While serving in Japan, her job was to order supplies. Her commanding officer forced her into a warehouse and raped her. “He told me that if I told anyone, that I would never live to see another day,” she said.

Davidson was also raped in Japan by an enlisted man. “I was assaulted even though I said, ‘No,’” she said. She reported the attacker to her sergeant. “He told me he would take care of it. But the abuse kept happening,” she said.

Davidson had planned to make the military a career, but the sexual trauma she endured caused her to change her mind. She contracted a sexually transmitted disease (STD). “I can’t have children because of what they did to me,” she said.

“I’m in this battle ever since because these people had the power to do whatever they wanted,” she said. She recently retired from the Hartford distribution center of the U.S. Postal Service.

Cloe Poisson Photo.

Davidson, an Air Force veteran, holds a photo of herself while on active duty. She served from 1988-1995.

Renee Mihail is a Yale law student working on the federal FOIA lawsuit and is a U.S. Army veteran. She said that she has seen “a lot of slut shaming of the victim” and “maneuvering to belittle the survivors” of sexual abuse. She said when a complaint is made, “at the end of the day, nothing really changes.”

She said perpetrators often “keep their position. They keep their rank. They are just slapped on the hand.”

“A lot of survivors want to see that it’s taken more seriously than that and that they’re respected, that they’re believed,” said Mihail, a West Point graduate.

The reforms awaiting Senate action are part of the $858 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and include strengthening of sexual harassment laws. Independent military attorneys, instead of commanders, would decide whether to prosecute and all sexual harassment claims would be investigated by trained civilians.

Military sexual harassment, a risk factor for sexual assault, encompasses unwanted sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and deliberate or repeated offensive comments or gestures of a sexual nature. “The odds of experiencing sexual assault increased threefold for women and tenfold for men who also indicated experiencing sexual harassment in the past year,” according to the Pentagon report.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, worked on the legislation as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said it “marks more progress toward an independent and credible military justice system.”

However, he said “there’s still more to be done more than 10 years after we began this fight for reform” such as ensuring strong penalties to replace what he sees as “greater leniency than is necessary” toward offenders.

“This reform effort will continue with undiminished fervor because the problem is still a raging scourge as the statistics show,” he said.

The earliest effective date of military justice provisions in both last year’s law and the pending bill is December 27, 2023. The delay is a point of contention. “Sexual assault is not going to pause. It’s going to keep happening,” said Chelsea Donaldson, a CVLC attorney. “So, what is their contingency plan to help these people and protect them from now until then?” she asked.

Donaldson has worked with 41 survivors of military sexual trauma in the past four years and said it “can completely upend somebody’s life.”  She said the trauma “catches up to them” and can result in mental health crises, suicide attempts, job loss, homelessness and the destruction of marriages and relationships.

President Biden has proposed $940 million in his 2023 fiscal year budget for military sexual assault prevention and response programs that would entail hiring more than 2,400 people to implement them. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a Biden appointee, has said addressing sexual assault is a top priority of his department.

Col. Don Christensen

Col. Don Christensen, president of Protect Our Defenders, praised the efforts of Biden and Austin. But he expressed concern about whether the generals and admirals, who have long opposed changing how the military handles sexual assault, would ignore or sabotage reforms. “A lot of them see it as a politically correct issue versus a real issue,” he said, pointing out that they will play a role in selecting the independent prosecutors.

A former Air Force chief prosecutor, Christensen called the increase in military sexual assaults “devastating.” But he said he wasn’t surprised because, for years, “the military put more effort into fighting reform than into fighting sexual assault.”  He said this resistance has “sent the wrong message to the rank and file about sexual assault.”

He supports more changes to the military justice system, including ensuring that victims have access to their own statements and forensic analysis, requiring unanimous verdicts by military juries instead of the current three-quarters, and expanding sentencing options. The NDAA bill includes a one-year study on providing victims access to their statements and forensic results.

“The sentencing process is almost identical to what George Washington had. It needs to be modernized,” he said.

For the suicide and crisis hotline, dial 988.  Services are available 24- hours a day.

For the veterans crisis hotline, click here or text 838255

He was speaking at a news conference after meeting with staff, veterans and their caregivers at VA Connecticut Healthcare in West Haven.

The added eligibility is the result of a new federal law, called the PACT Act, which provides an easier path to compensation and care for illnesses that occur after exposure to burn pits and other environmental toxins.  It expands the number of veterans eligible nationally for such help by about 300,000, according to the VA.

There are now about 56,000 Connecticut veterans enrolled at the VA, according to Pamela Redmond, spokesperson.

On Nov. 8, the VA will begin screening all of its patients across the country to learn about such exposures and resultant illnesses “to help us understand the size of the challenge we face,” McDonough said.

West Haven VA Photo.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough discusses the new federal law, the PACT Act and urged veterans to apply for benefits, during a visit at the West Haven VA on Wednesday. With McDonough is (from left) Acting Director of VA Connecticut Healthcare Russell Armstead, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

He said of more than 13,000 veterans screened in a national pilot program, 37% said they believed they were exposed to toxic materials while in the military. “That tells you something about the unmet needs of veterans,” he said.

He urged Connecticut veterans with exposure-related medical problems to seek care and benefits from the VA, now that the new law is in effect. “Those veterans here in Connecticut who believe they are suffering a condition related to toxic exposure, come here to the VA and we will take care of you,” McDonough said.  He said they can get information by going to VA.gov/PACT or calling 1-800-MYVA411 (1-800-648-2411).

The added anticipated caseload will require additional staff in Connecticut, including medical providers, he said. According to Redmond, it hasn’t yet been determined, how many people will be needed.  The VA now employs 4,195 people in the state, she said.

Members of Connecticut’s Congressional delegation accompanied McDonough in his West Haven visit, which was closed to the press. A news conference took place afterward.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat, who represents the Third District, said, “we have a moral responsibility to do the right thing” for veterans made ill by toxic exposures.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, praised the new law, but said it is too late for those who died before it was passed. He expressed hope that if veterans tell of their exposures during the upcoming medical screenings, cancers could possibly be caught “early, before they become more serious.”

Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, referred to the late Peter Antioho, an Army veteran from Berlin, who died of brain cancer after exposure to burn pits in Afghanistan.  Blumenthal said he promised Antioho that he would try to prevent other veterans from having to go through what he did to get disability benefits.

Antioho, who died at 34, and his wife, Amy, spent a year applying for VA benefits in connection with his glioblastoma.  C-HIT wrote about Antioho’s plight for VA benefits in 2019.

The VA rejected his application twice before the VA ultimately granted benefits after Blumenthal and U.S. Rep. John Larson, First District Democrat, intervened. Blumenthal said Antioho told him that “I shouldn’t have to go to a U. S. Senator to get benefits.”

Idervan DaCosta, of Brookfield, is in the process of appealing a rejection of his application for disability benefits related to burn pit exposure in Afghanistan.   “It’s very frustrating,” he said. “I applied for some of these benefits when I was discharged as I was already developing symptoms in 2013,” he said. He submitted an appeal in September. His symptoms include shortness of breath and a fiery pain in his lungs, he said.

In 2020, the VA reported to Congress that 80% of applications for burn pit-related illnesses were denied to veterans who served in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf. Only 20% of more than 12,000 applications were approved between 2007 and 2020, the VA reported.

The new law, expected to cost more than $300 billion over the next decade, adds 23 illnesses that the VA will automatically presume are the result of toxic exposures in the military, meaning that veterans won’t have to prove a service connection in their quests for benefits.

In addition to veterans who served in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf, it also adds veterans who served in Thailand, Guam and five other locations during the Vietnam War as presumed locations for Agent Orange exposure and includes hypertension as a service-connected illness from Agent Orange. It also provides benefits to families exposed to toxic water at the Camp Lejeune Marine Base in North Carolina and veterans exposed to carcinogens in Uzbekistan and radiation at a 1966 B-52 crash in Palomares, Spain.

McDonough was also scheduled to visit staff at the VA in Newington to discuss disability benefits for veterans exposed to toxins while in the military.

Now, the Marine veteran and Brookfield resident has more hope.

The Senate approved the PACT Act measure in June but it needed a second vote by the House. The bill was approved by the House and sent back to the Senate where Republicans initially blocked passage.  The measure was given final approval on Aug. 2.  (For information on PACT and to apply go here.)

The bill gives some 3.5 million post-9/11 veterans and those of other eras an easier path to compensation and care for illnesses that occur after exposure to burn pits and other environmental toxins. President Biden has promised to sign the bill.

The massive measure, known as the PACT Act, will cost more than $300 billion over the next decade, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. It adds 23 illnesses, including certain cancers and respiratory and lung diseases, for the VA to presume are connected to toxin exposure in the military. As a result, veterans with these issues will no longer have to prove a service connection to these illnesses.

Veterans spend months to years applying for compensation for burn pit-related illnesses after serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf, but most are denied. In 2020, the VA reported to Congress that just 20% of more than 12,000 applications were approved between 2007 and 2020.

The act also adds VA staff and 31 new offices in the country and will strengthen research and provide a framework for handling future presumptive illnesses. For veterans of the Vietnam War, which ended 47 years ago, it adds Thailand, Guam and five other places as presumed locations for Agent Orange (AO) exposures and includes hypertension as a service-connected illness from AO, which was long sought by Vietnam War veterans. The bill also provides benefits to families exposed to toxic water at the Camp LeJeune Marine Base and veterans exposed to carcinogens in Uzbekistan and radiation at a 1966 B-52 crash in Palomares, Spain.

 The bill will “begin to right the nation’s shameful inaction by helping veterans affected by toxic exposure.”

— U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee

DaCosta, 33, said the 16 Marines on his small base threw lithium batteries, human feces, plastics, food and other debris into a burn pit and doused it with diesel fuel. “You were not able to stand next to it for more than 30 seconds, or you’d pass out,” he recalled. He spent seven months at the 40-square-yard site where the burn pit sat in the middle of a courtyard, blazing 24 hours a day.

He explained that everything that wasn’t used was disposed of to prevent the Taliban from making bombs from ordinary objects like pens and soda bottles. “We were not thinking of the consequences of what we were doing and how it was going to impact our lives 10 or 20 years down the line,” he said.

DaCosta began having breathing and lung problems three years after returning from Afghanistan, one of three deployments. He is treated at the VA with asthma medication and is now appealing his denial. Asthma is one of the illnesses named in the bill. He also has a back injury from falling off a roof when he was a machine gunner and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and receives disability compensation for those conditions. He has a chemistry degree and will receive a master’s in finance and investment management this summer.

Too Late For Some Veterans

The legislation is too late for veterans who have died from illnesses related to toxic exposures.

Veterans “are dying every day waiting for people to make a decision. We should not nickel and dime them ‘til they die.”

— Linda Schwartz, a former VA assistant secretary for policy and planning, former state commissioner of Veterans Affairs. 

Craig Rosen of Windsor died at 31 of glioblastoma brain cancer, which typically affects older people, but has been increasingly seen in post-9/11 veterans exposed to burn pits. It is included in the bill as a presumptive condition. An Army veteran who served in Iraq, he was denied disability compensation by the VA. He appealed, but died before his case was decided.

The cancer caused headaches, vision problems, incoherent speech and lack of mobility, forcing him to use a wheelchair, said his father, Allan Rosen, who lived with him.

Because he didn’t have dependents, his case was closed upon his death, said Cindy Johnson, his lawyer and deputy director of the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center. Johnson is pursuing more than the $300 in death benefits his family received and will argue the connection to his burn-pits exposure. “It helps the family when [the VA] acknowledges that what he was dying of was due to his service,” she said.

Johnson criticized the legislation for excluding veterans with other than honorable discharges. “Yes, they’re exposed to the carcinogens. Yes, they will likely die from service-connected conditions. But they cannot get compensation,” she said.

Amy Antioho of Berlin would have had more time with her husband, Peter, before he died if she hadn’t spent a year applying for disability benefits in connection with his glioblastoma. The VA rejected his application twice before ultimately granting him benefits.

Melanie Stengel Photo.

In this 2019 photo, Amy Antioho is pictured with her husband, Peter, an army veteran, exposed to black smoke from a burn pit in Afghanistan who died of glioblastoma. Mark, their son, is in the background.

“I do feel like I lost a lot of time with Peter because I was constantly on the phone,” she said. “I was constantly doing research. I think it would have been beautiful to have spent that time with him rather than fighting for something I believe he had already earned.” She did so much work on his behalf that the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee asked for her records when drafting the legislation.

Antioho gets angry when she hears objections to the bill’s cost. “I really think the cost that’s too high is my son growing up without a father. My husband was 34—that’s the cost that was too high,” she said. Her son, Mark, is 6 and has just completed kindergarten. Her husband, an Army veteran and West Point graduate, had to walk through heavy smoke from burn pits twice a day in his job as second in command on his Afghanistan base.

Antioho expressed concern that many veterans won’t pursue benefits. She said her husband considered it begging and didn’t want to apply. “I look at my husband as having died for our country,” she said.

Thomas J. Saadi, state Veterans Affairs commissioner, encouraged veterans to apply even if they were unsuccessful in the past. “Don’t take a denial of 10 or 20 years ago to mean that you’re going to be denied today,” he said. “No veteran should feel they are not worthy of a benefit they are eligible for,” he added.

He urged veterans to call his office at 860-616-3684 for help in filing claims. Veterans’ organizations, such as Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), also offer assistance.

This story was updated on Aug. 1 to reflect the bill’s status.

When Geske reported the rape to her petty officer in 2000, he said he couldn’t respond until higher-ups arrived on a Navy ship four weeks later. Then, officials told her it was a “he said she said” scenario, and “they did nothing,” she said. “I felt at the time like I didn’t matter,” said the Glastonbury resident.

Maureen Gard Friedly said she was sexually assaulted by her Marine Corps platoon leader—whom she considered a friend—in 2006. Her commanders told the two to work out their problems and kept them in the same classes and living area. She was told that the notes from an interview about her complaint were lost, and she wasn’t given another interview. “My chain of command really let me down,” she said.

Geske’s and Friedly’s experiences aren’t unusual.

Geske Photo.

Debra Geske of Glastonbury was raped in 2000 while serving in the Navy. She hopes that having independent prosecutors will increase reporting of military sexual trauma.

Sexual assaults, rape and sexual harassment in the military continue to occur in large numbers. In 2020, 6,290 people reported being sexually assaulted in the military, according to the Department of Defense (DOD), but victim advocates say that number falls short of actual cases. Advocates cite fear of repercussion and the requirement of reporting to a commander—who may be the assailant—as reasons for the lack of reporting.

The last time the DOD conducted a survey was in 2018, when 20,500 respondents said they were sexually assaulted in the military, up from 14,900 in 2016. The DOD, which conducts surveys every two years, did not do one in 2020.

Now, after a decade of efforts to remove the prosecution of military sexual trauma (MST) from the jurisdiction of commanders, Congress has approved the measure placing the responsibility for prosecuting sexual assault cases on independent military lawyers.

The move has been hailed as historic. But critics say it doesn’t go far enough because commanders would retain a role in the judicial process, potentially diminishing the effect of the independent prosecutors.

National attention was riveted on the issue when at least 83 women and seven men were sexually assaulted by Navy and Marine aviators attending a 1991 conference called the Tailhook Symposium. Since then, other high-profile cases have occurred. In 2017, Marines solicited and shared nude photos of female colleagues on a Facebook page called Marines United. Last year, Vanessa Guillen, a 20-year-old soldier, was murdered at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas after reporting that she had been sexually harassed.

“I can’t tell you how upset it makes me” that military officials convinced Congress for years to allow commanders to have authority over military sexual trauma cases, Friedly said.

Chelsea M. Donaldson, an attorney with the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center (CVLC), said that she has represented 39 MST survivors—27 men and 12 women—in the past three years. None reported their experiences to their commanders, she said.

“Pretty much every awful story you can think of, I’ve probably heard a version of, unfortunately,” Donaldson said. She cited gang rapes, drug-facilitated rapes, and sexual hazing in boot camp, where soldiers are forced to strip and stand naked in front of each other. “I’m so surprised by how awful human beings can be to one another,” she said.

This year, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin supported requiring independent military prosecutors in sexual assault cases. The provision is included in the $768.2 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which was approved last week by the U.S. House of Representatives, and by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday (Dec. 15). It requires that survivors of sexual assault be informed of the disposition of cases against their perpetrators, requires tracking of retaliation against survivors of MST, and creates an Office of Special Trial Counsel in each service, answerable to a civilian official. It criminalizes sexual harassment but doesn’t take the crime’s jurisdiction away from commanders.

A stronger MST proposal has bipartisan support in Congress, including from Connecticut U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes of the 5th Congressional District.  It would completely eliminate commanders’ roles in handling the prosecution of non-military felonies. Sponsors plan to pursue this in separate legislation.

Friedly Photo.

Maureen Gard Friedly advocates for assault survivors and attends an equine-assisted psychotherapy program to help deal with her military sexual trauma. She’s pictured with her horse, Chap.

A statement by Protect Our Defenders (POD), an advocacy group devoted to reducing military sexual trauma, called the use of independent prosecutors “the most significant military justice reform in our nation’s history” and “a momentous step forward.”

However, its praise was qualified because the commanders would retain some judicial authority, including over court-martial proceedings and who would serve on them. Col. Don M. Christensen, POD president, said this “erodes the independence” of the prosecutors and ignores concerns of MST survivors that commanders will “still have too much influence.”

Friedly agreed. A former Meriden resident, she was an activist for MST survivors while attending Quinnipiac University and continues to advocate for them in Texas, where she lives now.

She said commanders’ retaining some judicial authority insults survivors. “Like we won’t see through the wool and think this is some sort of improvement,” Friedly said. “As long as the chain of command has involvement in prosecution and decision-making, we will continue to see a rise in sexual crime, little to no punishment for those found to have been guilty, and a decrease in reporting,” she said.

Friedly, a married mother of two, said if there had been independent prosecutors when she was assaulted at the age of 18, she wouldn’t be living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), she wouldn’t have lost trust in people, and she wouldn’t be so fearful and suspicious of others.

She attends an equine-assisted psychotherapy program to help deal with her MST and runs occasional support groups for other female MST survivors.

Geske expressed hope that having independent prosecutors would increase MST reporting because it might reduce fear of repercussion. “They told me I shouldn’t be in the military if I was going to complain about somebody sexually harassing me,” said Geske, who was gang-raped when she was 20.

Several advocates said new laws need to be accompanied by cultural changes in the military. “That plays a lot into this whole issue,” Friedly said. She recalled a Marine nickname, “WM,” which she said meant both “woman Marine” and “walking mattress.”

Christensen, of Protect Our Defenders, said, “There’s definitely a misogynistic subculture.” He referred to military men who don’t want women to serve or be in combat “even though women have been excelling.” He called for “people who are wearing the stars to get on board,” adding, “if they don’t, it’s time for them to go.”

In the last three years, attorney Chelsea M. Donaldson of the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center has represented 39 military sexual trauma survivors—27 men and 12 women.

Donaldson, of the CVLC, called for “a major cultural shift” so MST survivors will feel safe. She said her clients didn’t report sexual abuse because they were “afraid of being punished, of being blamed for the assault, of being labeled as a problem for reporting the assault,” she said.

Donaldson pointed out that it’s important to acknowledge that men also get sexually harassed, raped and assaulted. A July Rand Corporation report for the Pentagon estimated that 1 in 16 women and 1 in 143 men had been sexually assaulted in the military.

U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, a Democrat from California, first introduced legislation in 2011, and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, introduced legislation in 2013 to take military sexual trauma prosecution out of the chain of command.

“This type of reform was needed decades ago,” Donaldson said.

This story was updated to include final approval by the U.S. Senate.

He’s struggled with anorexia and bulimia at different periods for more than a decade, and like many other veterans with eating disorders, he attributes them to his time in the military.

Burke, of Weston, said that in his Marines’ basic training, drill instructors didn’t eat in front of the troops, which he saw as a message that eating is a weakness. In Iraq and Afghanistan, he went days without eating while focused on military missions. In Afghanistan, he witnessed children being blown up by a roadside bomb, and he had to pick up their body parts. It triggered a suicide attempt, longtime suicide ideations, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  He saw himself as someone who didn’t “deserve to eat,” he said.

Veterans’ eating disorders are associated with exposure to trauma and pressure to meet military weight and fitness requirements, said Dr. Sara Rubin, a psychiatrist who heads the Eating Disorders Program at VA Connecticut Healthcare. Also, women who have been sexually assaulted in the military are disposed to eating disorders, she said.

“It’s not a coincidence that a lot of folks who come through and see me [for PTSD] have eating disorders as well.” There is “a lack of attention to eating disorders” in the military.

— Dr. Sara Rubin, psychiatrist

According to Robin M. Masheb, a Yale Medical School psychologist and researcher for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), “so many veterans seem to struggle with their eating and body image, but go unrecognized.”

A study of post 9/11 veterans found that bulimia, binge eating and atypical anorexia nervosa (AAN) were associated with depression, anxiety, PTSD, insomnia and a lower quality of life. AAN has symptoms of anorexia, including starvation and extreme fear of weight gain, but without dangerous low weight. The study led by Masheb of more than 1,100 veterans was the first to examine AAN in veterans. It found that 14% of women and 5% of men had probable AAN, “a clinically significant eating and mental health disorder.” The study also showed 6% of the women and 3% of the men had bulimia (binging and purging), three times the civilian rate.

Eating disorders can also result in death. A study by Deloitte Access Economics found that 10,200 people die each year because of an eating disorder. Anorexia nervosa has the second-highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder after opioid use disorder, and one in five deaths among people with anorexia is a suicide, according to the National Eating Disorders Association.

The VA Eating Disorders Program was established in 2019, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic began, affecting participation, Rubin said. Patients have to be referred by clinicians, who often don’t detect signs of eating disorders, particularly among overweight patients, she said. So far, 29 men and 26 women have been referred. Services include diagnosis, remote group sessions, cognitive behavioral therapy, nutritional counseling, psychotherapy and medication.

Masheb, director of the national VA’s Veterans Initiative for Eating and Weight, said eating disorders have been masked in military and veterans’ populations because most research has focused on white, teenage girls and young women, leading to erroneous beliefs that men, older and overweight women, and people of color don’t have eating disorders.

Yale School of Medicine Photo.

Robin Masheb’s study was the first to examine atypical anorexia nervosa in veterans.

Masheb is working on several studies addressing eating disorders. They include designing mechanisms so the VA can screen patients for eating disorders, which it doesn’t do now; determining appropriate treatments for veterans with binge eating disorder; separating treatment of binge eating disorder and bulimia in the military from weight management; and training VA providers to identify eating disorders.

The Connecticut National Guard has created a Fitness Improvement Program to help soldiers struggling with weight and fitness, according to spokesperson Capt. David Pytlik. He said it focuses on sleep, nutrition, mental health and exercise, adding that if a soldier’s eating habits raise concerns, they are referred to behavioral or medical practitioners.

Burke said women veterans have told him they starved themselves before military weigh-ins and struggled to get back to required weight after giving birth. He knows of people who added muscle by weight training and were considered overweight. He called for a change in the military culture so that self-care, including nutrition, is valued.

Masheb led a study that showed a relationship between changing eating habits to meet military weight standards and binge eating and eating pathology later in life. The study reported that nearly 24,000 soldiers were discharged between 1992 and 2006 for exceeding maximum body fat limits.

Burke was diagnosed at the VA with an eating disorder about four years ago, but the focus was on his physical health and didn’t include mental health care. He now sees a private therapist who addresses the psychiatric issues and physical needs associated with eating disorders.

“I’m in a better place, but I still struggle quite a bit,” he said.

Melanie Stengel Photo.

Thomas Burke with his dog, Rosie. Burke says that Rosie was a victim of violence and trauma.

It’s been a journey. After returning home from the military, he tried to eat more, but he didn’t know how. “I couldn’t regulate my food intake,” he said. He became bulimic, eating all his groceries in one sitting, then vomiting. When he was a wrestler at Sacred Heart University, he repeatedly broke and fractured ribs brittle from malnourishment. The pain frightened him into wanting to learn to eat properly and add muscle by weightlifting. He said his starvation was partly connected to a desire to be thin, a characteristic of anorexia.

“My feelings of what I deserve very much have to do with eating and caring for myself, doing what I need to do to be happy,” Burke said. His wife has used trial and error to find foods that appeal to him. He also drinks protein shakes.

At 5 feet 7 inches, he now weighs 150 pounds, up from a low of 120. And at 32 years old, his life is full. He graduated from Yale Divinity School and is associate minister for children, youth and families at Norfield Congregational Church in Weston. He is co-founder and treasurer of High Ground Veterans Advocacy, which trains veterans to advocate for veterans’ issues. He got married last year. He said his wife, Gretchen, has helped him “become healthier, mentally and physically,” and his service dog, Rosie, calms his anxieties.

Burke had a recent setback when the Navy Discharge Review Board rejected his application for a discharge upgrade from other than honorable (OTH) to honorable. He said his discharge status was based on marijuana use after the children’s deaths in Afghanistan. The OTH is “absolutely connected” to feeling like “a person who doesn’t deserve to eat,” he said with tears in his eyes.

For help with eating disorders, contact Nationaleatingdisorders.org.

Correa had thought he left Afghanistan unscathed because he was alive and uninjured. But over time, survivor’s guilt, sadness about the problems of veterans he counseled at work, deep-seated anger at an Army superior, and uncontrollable emotions overwhelmed him. He suffers from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). His lowest point was the day he set out to kill someone with a gun.

“It was going to end up badly,” said Correa, 34, of Willimantic, a father of two children. But something inside him knew “it’s not me.” He sought help and was immediately hospitalized. He spent nearly three months in residential psychiatric programs, was diagnosed as homicidal and suicidal, and learned that his TBI resulted from trauma his brain suffered during explosive blasts.

President Joe Biden announced in April that American troops would withdraw from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021, 20 years after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon that prompted America’s longest war.

As the withdrawal nears, Correa and two other Connecticut veterans looked back on the effects their deployments had on their lives. Alyssa Kelleher, 39, director of the University of Connecticut Office of Veterans Affairs and Military Programs, spent 26 months in Afghanistan in two deployments as a combat troop leader. She witnessed the carnage and severe poverty among the Afghan people. Fausto Parra, 38, of Trumbull, who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, said his military units became family. He now works with veterans.

They were among 830,807 American troops who served in Afghanistan, according to U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) statistics. Of those, 2,448 died and 20,722 were wounded, as of June 4. Twenty-five military personnel from Connecticut died in Afghanistan or from injuries sustained there, according to data compiled by the state and veterans’ advocates for memorials in Hartford and Middletown.

The DOD didn’t provide the total number of Connecticut residents who served in Afghanistan, but released statistics of those sent from Connecticut-based units, such as the National Guard, Reserves, and the Groton Naval Base between Oct. 1, 2001, and Sept. 30, 2020, as follows: 2,082 troops, 18 deaths, and 238 injured.

The war has cost the U.S. government $2.26 trillion as of April 15, according to the Costs of War project, based at Brown and Boston universities. The amount doesn’t include costs for Afghanistan veterans’ care or future interest payments on money borrowed to fund the war.

Cloe Poisson Photo.

As a combat troop leader Alyssa Kelleher witnessed carnage and severe poverty among the Afghan people. She’s now a mom and director of the University of Connecticut Office of Veterans Affairs and Military Programs.

Unique Health Challenges

Dr. Sara Rubin, a psychiatrist with the VA Connecticut Healthcare System PTSD/Anxiety Disorders Team, said Afghanistan deployments presented unique challenges to troops because of the country’s rugged terrain, the smaller military units that served there, and fewer resources than Iraq war troops had. She said the result is a sense of isolation, which exacerbates PTSD. She pointed out that TBI, often associated with PTSD, is the “hallmark injury” of the Afghanistan war. She explained the damage occurs in the brain’s frontal lobe, which controls such functions as agitation and rage.

Christina Savage, a VA social worker with the Post 9/11 Case Management Team, said other problems she sees in veterans of recent deployments include muscle pain, substance abuse, unhealthy eating, poor hygiene, destroyed families, and a general struggle to live without the military’s structure.

Correa said most of his problems surfaced when he was counseling veterans. “I was trying to help others. I thought I was doing a good job,” he said. But at night, he lashed out at his wife in unprovoked, angry outbursts.

When he was hospitalized, he talked for the first time about long-held anger. He had unsuccessfully asked for an extension of leave from Afghanistan to help his legally blind wife, who was injured in a car accident. The situation devolved into his superior yelling at him and ordering him to do push-ups, and Correa punching the officer and being demoted, he said. “I felt betrayed,” he said.

Kelleher said her first deployment was extended because the unit that was supposed to replace hers was sent to Iraq instead. “A lot of resources and focus were going to Iraq and not going to Afghanistan,” where conditions for troops were generally “remote and austere,” she said.  And, the harsh existence of the Afghan people, many without plumbing or reliable electricity, “is something that stays with you,” she said.

Now, she puts problems in perspective. “Nearly everything you encounter is not going to be as bad as a bad day there,” she said.

As a female leader, she encountered many Afghan men who wouldn’t speak to her even though she had male Afghan interpreters.

She always knew where her troops were and had immediate access to information. But, back at home, she panicked if she couldn’t reach people. “It took some conscious work on my part” to understand that they were likely not in danger, she said.  Ironically, she recognized her anxiety when training to be a counselor in an Army resilience program and used the curriculum to help herself overcome it.

Cloe Poisson Photo.

Fausto Parra of Trumbull, served in Afghanistan and Iraq. He’s dedicated his career to working for veterans.

Kelleher of Willington has a 3-year-old daughter, and, in addition to her UConn job, she is a lieutenant colonel in the Connecticut National Guard. She has ended relationships with people who expressed no interest in her deployments, which she called important parts of her life. But she maintains friendships with about 60 people from her deployments. “Those are the beautiful things about the military—people who you’ve gone through those things with—you stay in touch for life,” she said.

Parra said the people he was deployed with have become family to him. Parra, who left the Army after two deployments, is mourning a fellow soldier who had two additional deployments and died by suicide. Parra linked it to the multiple deployments. “I can imagine,” he said, “that you can transform into someone completely different.”

While earning associate’s, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees, Parra has dedicated his career to veterans, working for the VA, the state Department of Veterans Affairs, the nonprofit Workplace, and now the DOD. “I found no other passion aside from serving veterans,” he said.

End Of The Longest War

Correa expressed doubts about the planned troop withdrawal. The Afghan people “need to be liberated from the Taliban,” he said, adding, “The job is not finished.”

Kelleher took a similar stance. She was an Army platoon leader in her first deployment and a company commander in the Connecticut National Guard in her second. The withdrawal is “hard to see because you were there and believed in what you were doing, and have a lot of personal friends who sacrificed up to their life for this cause,” she said. “There’s still unrest. There’s still violence. There’s still mistreatment of women and minorities. These are things we wanted to help change,” she added.

Parra expressed relief about the pullout, a sentiment shared by the 25 Army veterans from his deployment with whom he keeps in touch. Some have children old enough to serve, and they are pleased their offspring won’t have to go to Afghanistan. He said that since Biden’s announcement, the group has reached out more than usual to check on each other.

For Correa, nonprofit veterans’ organizations have given him strategies for budgeting and improving marital communications, fitness programs, peer support groups, social events, and gift cards for family movie nights.

Looking back at his deployments where colleagues got injured or died, Correa said, “I didn’t get shot at. I didn’t get blown up. They did. Some people might look at that as a blessing. For me, I should have gotten hurt.”

But Murdock’s outlook changed drastically after a Veterans Health Administration social worker met with him while he was still in prison, assessed him and arranged for him to receive an apartment, food, clothing and medical care upon his release.

Tony Bacewicz Photo

Jeffrey Murdock, 55, in his apartment in West Haven.

Murdock, 55, is one of 50 incarcerated veterans who have been have been helped since June by the VA jail release program, according to Michele Roberts, the social worker who runs it. Assistance includes housing, medical care, medications, and substance abuse treatment, all of which have helped the veterans avoid situations that put them at risk for re-arrest. Just two are back in jail and a third left the program, Roberts said. All but two are men.

There are 518 veterans in state prisons, with 180 eligible for the VA jail release program, Roberts said. Veterans who are eligible must have been honorably discharged, and other conditions include length of service, income, disabilities and commendations. About 180 veterans currently incarcerated aren’t eligible because they either received dishonorable or Other Than Honorable (OTH) discharges, or their military discharge status isn’t known, Roberts said.

She travels to state prisons meeting with veterans who are nearing release, finding them through lists provided by the U.S. Department of Defense and referrals from the state Department of Correction. She said that most served in the Iraq, Afghanistan or Vietnam wars and about half have mental health and/or substance abuse problems.

Whether their needs are housing, psychiatric or medical, they “get a good, solid plan,” Roberts said. “We really look at the big picture. I want those guys to succeed,” she added.

Murdock, a Navy veteran, spent nine months in prison, split between Osborne Correctional Institution in Somers and Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown, which houses inmates with mental health issues. He had been convicted of threatening and violating parole.

Roberts “saved my life. I essentially had no place to go,” Murdock said. He explained that partial paralysis from MS would have made him a bad fit for a homeless shelter.

When he arrived at his federally subsidized apartment in West Haven, he was met by a VA staffer who took him shopping for clothes at Goodwill, a housing supervisor who bought him groceries, and was given a doctor’s appointment for the following day so he could get his medicine.

He is living on Social Security and sees a primary care physician and a psychiatrist at the VA, has completed a VA anger management program, and reports to his probation officer in Milford monthly.

Tony Bacewicz Photo

Michele Roberts stands outside the New Haven Correctional Center where she meets with prisoners.

Roberts said incarcerated veterans have varying needs, ruled by such factors as their finances, family support, and their health. Some only need to be connected to a VA primary care physician while others, like Murdock, require a range of services. She said a major challenge is finding housing for sexual offenders because there are only six beds in the state available for them at three homeless shelters: Danbury Shelter, South Park Inn in Hartford, and Columbus House in New Haven.

“What I’ve learned about this is, every case is different,” she said.

The VA conducts forums in prisons to answer inmates’ questions and provide information about services and eligibility. Laurie Harkness, director of the VA’s Errera Community Care Center which operates the program, explained that “many of them have not had VA services before. Many of them do not know they’re eligible for VA services.”

Murdock said he long thought he wasn’t eligible for VA services because he was never in combat. In fact, the first time he sought help as a veteran was in 2012, 30 years after he left the Navy, when he lived at Homes for the Brave, a residence for veterans in Bridgeport.

Margaret Middleton, executive director of the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center, has represented for free hundreds of veterans seeking upgrades in their discharge status. She said she disagreed with the policy of excluding all veterans with OTH discharges since some may be eligible for VA services. OTH is a “gray” designation that doesn’t automatically disqualify a veteran from VA services, she said.

Harkness said the decision to exclude veterans with OTH discharges is based on federal criteria. She said incarcerated veterans with OTH discharges should apply for status upgrades after they are released. If they are successful, they can get VA benefits.

Karen Martucci, spokesperson for the state correction department, called the VA jail release program “vital,” saying that the VA’s resources address “the unique needs of veterans.”

To enhance the program, Harkness said she has hired a forensic psychiatrist who will begin working in April. “We have been shocked at how much of a need there is” for psychiatric treatment, she said.

As for Murdock, he is “very optimistic.’’ He said he shared his experiences to “help the next guy. The alternatives aren’t very rosy. If it can help a guy, give another chance to get things right, they’ve certainly done that for me. For all the horror stories you hear about the VA, there are a lot of good people doing a lot of good things.”

Tony Bacewicz Photo

Pasquale Pilla Jr., lives in New Haven and is enrolled in VA treatment programs.

Some 81 percent of veterans in the program run by the Veterans Health Administration have not been arrested again. And one run by the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services shows a 36 percent drop in illegal drug use among its veterans and a 44 percent decrease in symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

“So many people are getting what they really need, which is treatment and not incarceration,” said Laurie Harkness, the VA program director. “It’s making such a difference in so many veterans’ lives.”

The programs, designed to help veterans with mental health and substance abuse problems, operate in courts statewide, where social workers reach out to arrested veterans to let them know about treatment options for PTSD, anger management, and addictions, among other illnesses.

If a veteran agrees, the social worker will recommend treatment options to the court, and will guide veterans through the process. A judge decides whether to sentence the veteran to a treatment program instead of jail or other penalties, such as fines. The crimes committed range from motor vehicle violations to domestic violence charges to car thefts.

“We see them from their worst moment in time to how well they can do with services,” said Jessica Marshall, a VA social worker, who works mostly in the New Haven courts. When she visits veterans in jail waiting to be arraigned, Marshall said, “They see support immediately. They know they are not alone.”

The VA’s Veterans Justice Outreach program has served about 1,100 veterans since 2011, its first full year of operation. The state Veterans Jail Diversion program has helped about 700 veterans since it began in 2009.

The treatment programs are run at the VA and at other in- and outpatient facilities statewide. During treatment, the veterans can get help in other areas, such as housing and employment referrals. The length of time of treatment depends on the individual’s needs.

Michael Paris, a public defender in Bridgeport, said he has a client who developed mental health and substance abuse issues after a deployment to Iraq. “Before he went into the service, he was fine,” Paris said. The veteran was arrested for stealing a car and crashing it when he was intoxicated. “It was a pretty serious thing,” Paris said.

A judge agreed to allow him to attend a VA treatment program in lieu of jail. The man participated in an inpatient program early last year at the VA hospital in West Haven, and is now receiving treatment as an outpatient. He was homeless and the VA helped him get housing.

“I’m hoping he will complete the program successfully and get a dismissal of all the charges,” said Paris. He added that his client has been “very conscientious” about his treatments and has received “nice” progress reports.

Tony Bacewicz Photo

Jessica Marshall, a VA social worker, works mostly in New Haven courts.

Veteran Pasquale Pilla Jr., 36, said he could have gone to jail for 20 years if he had been convicted of a domestic violence charge. Instead, he was sentenced to a combination of inpatient and outpatient VA programs and now works as a night housekeeper at the VA hospital, living in transitional housing in New Haven. Pilla said he was a victim of sexual assault while in the Army. He attends a PTSD group and military sexual trauma classes, meets regularly with a psychiatrist and a chaplain, and takes prescribed medications.

“A lot of people told me that when I first came to the hospital, people were afraid to come near me,” said Pilla, who is from Watertown. “People have seen a 100 percent turnaround,” he said.

Melvin Mitchell, 63, a Navy veteran from Norwich, has struggled with alcohol addiction, which he said led to domestic violence arrests. He relapsed twice after attending programs at the VA and reporting weekly to a state social worker and a domestic violence specialist. In his second relapse, his social worker caught him in a liquor store making a purchase. He was sent back to the VA for inpatient treatment.

“The third time was a charm,” Mitchell said. “They give you a death sentence: you can be drunk and die, or you can live.”

The programs’ officials point to the importance of such personal connections.

Patrick Hayes, a Navy veteran from Bridgeport, works for the VA, mainly driving veterans to court appearances. In a year, he has taken 57 veterans to 115 court appearances.

“I treat them as fellow veterans,” Hayes said. “I don’t ask them what they did. They’re already in court. My concern is their state of being,” he said, adding, “My responsibility is to infuse hope in a veteran.”

Tony Bacewicz Photo

Patrick Hayes, a Navy veteran from Bridgeport, drives veterans to court appearances.

In his car, he carries bottled water and a variety of music. “Most of them talk to me. I rarely have a person who doesn’t talk. I allow them to be comfortable,” Hayes said. “Veterans have a bond like no other group,” he said. “My personal goal is to give them back their identity.”

In addition to the help given to veterans, the programs save money.

Mary Kate Mason, a spokesperson for the state mental health department, said, “The average cost of these services is about $420 per person per month” compared with the $2,895 monthly cost for incarceration.

Meanwhile, a state law, passed two years ago, also tries to help veterans who commit crimes by allowing them to use accelerated rehabilitation twice instead of the usual one time for other offenders, and to have access to psychological help without an official diagnosis.

Nicole Feinberg, assistant deputy public defender in Bridgeport, had a client in December who was arrested for reckless driving. He had been granted accelerated rehabilitation for a previous charge and applied again because he is a veteran. The judge agreed to dismiss the charges in a year if the man doesn’t get arrested again, drives with a valid license, has insurance and donates $250 to charity. Feinberg said without the second accelerated rehabilitation, her client would likely have lost his license which would have left him without transportation to his job, and he could have gone to jail for up to 30 days.

The state and the VA conduct training sessions for court personnel. Harkness said the VA is planning one for judges in the spring.

“The more visible we are,” Harkness said, “the more people think, maybe there’s an option to incarceration,” that there’s a possibility a veteran “doesn’t need incarceration, he needs help coming home.”

The VA also needs to do a better job monitoring veterans who are prescribed antidepressants and in tracking suicides, according to a new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The GAO analyzed VA data from the 2009 through 2013 fiscal years and found inconsistencies in the way veterans were treated and medical records were kept. It also found that the VA’s own clinical guidelines were not always followed.

VA officials did not respond to requests for comment about the report. The GAO is an independent, nonpartisan watchdog agency that works for Congress and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars.

According to the GAO, from 2009 through 2013 about 10 percent of veterans – or 532,222 individuals – who sought health-care services through the VA were diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Symptoms include depressed mood, loss of interest or other conditions that last for two weeks or more and affect the patient’s ability to function.

But those figures may not accurately reflect the prevalence of depression among veterans, according to the GAO, because a sample of veterans’ medical records found diagnostic coding discrepancies in more than one third of the cases.

The GAO reviewed 30 individuals’ records and found coding errors in 11 cases. In each of those cases, there was at least one time a doctor documented a veteran having major depressive disorder in the record but did not code it properly. Instead, the doctor coded it as a less-specific depression, meaning those individuals were not flagged as having major depressive disorder.

Since VA data collection is tied to the diagnostic codes assigned by clinicians, improper coding can skew figures, according to the GAO.

Of those diagnosed with major depressive disorder, the vast majority – 94 percent, or 499,000 veterans – were prescribed at least one antidepressant, according to the GAO report.

But the GAO examined the records of 30 veterans who were given antidepressants and found that almost none were treated in accordance with the VA’s clinical guidelines for major depressive disorder.

In 26 of the 30 cases the GAO examined, veterans were not assessed using a standardized assessment tool, which guidelines stipulate should be used four to six weeks after a patient begins treatment. Also, guidelines say all veterans should be taught how to take their medication, but the GAO found no documentation of patient education in six of the 30 cases it examined.

The report also says “VA Central Office mental health officials were unable to tell us what it means to provide care that is consistent with the (guidelines).”

The guidelines are intended to “reduce practice variation and help improve patient outcomes,” but the VA can’t ensure that is happening without a clear understanding of how patients’ care matches up to the guidelines, the GAO report says.

Sen. Blumenthal

“This report is extremely troubling and deeply disturbing because it confirms the anecdotal evidence about inadequacies,” said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. “Discrepancies and other inconsistencies and inaccuracies in records is completely unacceptable.”

Cases of depression and suicide among veterans is “a spreading scourge” that needs to be addressed, he said.

Depression is more prevalent among veterans than it is among the general population, according to the VA and the GAO.

Depression in veterans disproportionately affects men, with data showing 87 percent of those with major depressive order from 2009 through 2013 were male veterans. The disorder also was most prevalent among whites, veterans between the ages of 35 and 64, and those who aren’t veterans of the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the report.

The GAO also found the VA keeps inaccurate data pertaining to veteran suicides. The agency reviewed 63 cases and found various mistakes: six cases listed an incorrect date of death, medical records in nine cases listed an incorrect number of outpatient VA mental health visits, and medical assessments were not performed uniformly, for instance.

The VA has taken steps to address depression and suicide among veterans, including the 2007 launch of a Veterans Crisis Line. In fiscal year 2013 alone, the crisis line received about 287,000 calls, 54,800 online chats and 11,300 text messages, according to the GAO.

But more needs to be done, Blumenthal said. He introduced legislation during the just-ended session of Congress that, among other provisions, would have created an evaluation process for mental health and suicide prevention services at the VA as well as the U.S. Department of Defense.

Though the legislation had widespread bipartisan support, it was blocked earlier this week by U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who is retiring this year for health reasons.

Blumenthal said he was saddened by the bill’s defeat but he plans to introduce it as his first piece of legislation when the new congressional session begins in January.

“I will fight for it,” he said, adding he also will continue to push for “very active and aggressive” oversight of the VA by the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.