It starts with NCOs telling you after PT how great you looked in your shorts and inviting you to come over to their place to “hang out”. https://abc7chicago.com/vanessa-guillen-aaron-robinson-update-bludgeoned/6294382/

It starts with SNCOs having one too many and letting you know that they think you’re beautiful and have always admired you and hoping that they’ve shared this information with you isn’t “crossing the line”.

It’s starts with your shipmates making inappropriate comments to you every time you walk by them at night, it starts with it happening outside of work at parties too.

It starts with going to your chain of command & them saying if you don’t like what’s happening you should just ignore it, they’re just jokes anyways.

It’s the LPO that tells you if you really hate it that much you should just sit outside while the rest of the shift is working.

It starts with knowing it isn’t right & standing up to your Chief demanding a change happen.

It starts with the CWO telling you how you were wrong for standing up & saying something & how you did it was inappropriate & to use the chain of command correctly next time.

It starts with taking hits on your evals because of that incident because you’re now labeled a “problem Sailor”.

In my case, it ended with me being raped by the very SNCO who was supposed to protect me & the Navy telling me they wouldn’t ruin his career over a “mistake.”

It ends with your voice being silenced when you tried to defend yourself.

It ends with your friends, coworkers, shipmates, SNCO’s, and the military as a whole letting you down.

This stops now.

The sexual harassment and sexual assaults need to stop now for the women who put on the same uniform as their male counterparts, doing the same job as they do, and signing up the same way they did.

I stand with Vanessa Guillen because I am Vanessa Guillen.