Page 38 - Unit Cohesion News Today

Their commanding officer as victims of horrific acts of sexual violence. >> reporter: the statistics are sobering. an estimated 26,000 sexual assaults in the military last year alone and surveys showed that 2/3 of female victims didnt report them. gillibrands legislation would dramatically change the way the military handles these cases taking the judicial authority away from the chain of command. the top brass at the pentagon is staunchly opposed. military leaders argue they must be able to pol...

Making sure that inappropriate evidence is never considered by a commander, either how good the scandal was or their prior sexual conduct. we took hours and hours visiting with military prosecutors and victims and i think the package we came up with is going to be the best possible solution to protecting these victims, encouraging them to come forward, but also holding these commanders accountable. by the way, were not going away, andrea, were going to watch this. were not going to let this cult...

>> captain, quickly. how damaging has this been? >> when we talk about unit cohesion, es predecor and army strong, whatever army metaphor we want to use, knowing you can actually trust your leadership and something be done and people held accountable, if we dont have trust, we dont have anything. >> congressman? >> we do -- we operate in small units and need to make sure we honor that sacred trust. i served with gillibrand on the armed services committee in the house. she is diligent, smart, and...

I think its the military who learned to take control andan stand up tod do whats right, even though its an officer told told him has to come forward and say, this is wrong. i should be able to read what i want and i will go to your superior to make sure i can do it. >> juan, the irony here is that theyre telling him not to listen to sean hannity or listen to mark levin or read one of the books. meanwhile, thats all they talk about is liberty. they talk about fighting tyranny. this is tyrannical....

Female senators who want victims of abuse to report the crime to special military legal authorities instead of their commanding officer. >> you have lost the trust of the men and women who rely on you. theyre afraid to report. they fear retaliation. they fear being blamed. >> this isnt about sex. this is about assaultive domination and violence. >> reporter: but the chiefs argued they must be the ones to police their own ranks. >> command authority is the most critical mechanism for assuring dis...

Zero tolerance culture. too often commanders have looked the other way to try to sustain unit cohesion to try to make the problem go away. i do think leadership, accountability, and things like creating special counsels for sexual assault victims to be able to take their complaints to a lawyer and investigator immediately. i think in some areas, limiting the ability to have commanding officers to overturn or change the results of a court-martial process. but you know, the senior leaders of the m...

Actively engaged in this conversation. recently a group of us were over at the pentagon meeting with the vice chiefs of staff at all levels, they are saying were trying to change the culture. were trying to change the training, were trying to change our ability to talk about this. and part of what they need to do is change the number of prosecutions and laws. as anu said and youve heard, the military code of justice does not exactly follow civilian law. and there are reasons its different. but c...

Bottom of the hour. well, a lot of reaction, new reaction on this sunday after the pentagon lifted the ban on women in combat. defense secretary leon pa net making that announcement last week opening up thousands of front lines and potentially elite commando job opportunities to women in the military. our steve centanni is live with the news tonight in washington. steve, what is the argument against women serving in combat. >> well, people say it could lead to problems with unit cohesion and com...

Control legislation for a while. gregg? >> gregg: peter doocy in washington. peter, thanks. >> well, new reaction today to the pentagons decision to lift the ban on women in combat, which could open up thousands of front line military positions as soon as this year. some critics of the policy though they say that the mixing of genders on the battlefield is a dangerous experiment. advocates though say that the move -- women have already proved themselves in the line of fire. steve centanni is liv...

Discount. it is powerful cultural norm to protect. not necessarily all cultural and sometimes can be biological and hardwired. that is something to worry about unit cohesiveness and how that works. the military is very good accommodating new things and working through these and making them merit-based. i hope that is indeed what will happen. the reality even though you needless brute strength than you did in the past youre still running around with that battle gear on and sometimes hundreds of p...