MST:
Military Sexual Trauma
MST:
Military Sexual Trauma
by Miette Walker
Published by (date): Wells Publishing, llc (2009)
ISBN: 978-0-578-02341-0
Price: 12.95
Tags: Reference ColdWar KoreanWar Vietnam GulfWar Iraq/Afghanistan OtherWar
Other
Synopsis:
Military Sexual Trauma is a traumatic event from which many victims never fully
recover. There is a uniqueness to MST which separates it from other traumas,
even other sexual traumas. This book is the result of personal experience and
research into the reality of thousands of US soldiers, past and present that
encountered MST.
MST: Military Sexual Trauma provides an introspective and eye-opening look into
a world that few survive unscarred.
Miette Wells joined the Air Force after high school in 1987 with an aspiration
for a career in the military. Like so many others her ambitions were bashed when
she has her first encounter with MST. After her military memoir authorship,
Crossing the Blue Code and Beyond The Blue Code, numerous accounts of similar
experiences flooded her email inbox. She decided there is much more she can do
to bring MST to the knowledge of the general public.
MST: Military Sexual Trauma provides an excellent introspective
review of the unique aspects affecting sexual trauma victims.
The book focuses both on the victims and the culture of the military
community that is the environment in which the victims live.
The author does a very good job of describing the characteristics of
life in the military with its camaraderie, command structure, lack
of freedoms, discipline and loss of privacy. The book then
expertly describes how that culture accentuates the dilemma for
someone who has just survived an MST. In the process a number
of resources for counseling, healing, and even disability claims are
identified for the reader.
The author covers a lot of ground in a rather short book discussing
a topic that has been the focus of many lengthy studies. It
provides a compelling case that the issues surrounding MST have not
been resolved.
While the author does an excellent job identifying the extraordinary
set of complicating factors a victim of MST faces, I had a hard time
believing that victims’ situations were so universally mishandled in
the military.
The book is well presented and maintains an excellent focus.
Review by Bob Doerr, MWSA Reviewer (January 2010)