Im dwigt sullivan. The investigation prosecution and defense of Sexual Assault in the armed forces. This meeting is open. If a member of the audience would tlik comment on any issue before the committee please direct your request seated to my right. All Public Comment will be heard at the end of meeting and the discretion of the chair. It would be inappropriate for any member of the Public Gallery to offer oral comment at any other time. Written Public Comment maybe submitted for the committee consideration. The chair is yours. Thank you, mr. Sullivan. Good afternoon all. Welcome to the Fourth Meeting of the Defense Advisory Committee on investigation prosecution ano defense of Sexual Assault in the armed forces. Or dak ipad. The secretary of defense appointed 16 members. All of whom are participating here today. The created by the secretary of defense in a accordance with the National Defense authorizization act for fiscal year 2015. Ashe amended. O our mandate is advise the secretary of defense on investigation, prosecution and defense of allegations of Sexual Assault and other Sexual Misconduct involving members ocht armed forces. Before we get started i would like to recognize and introduce the new deputy staff director of the dak ipad. Army colonel steven ware. Could you stand up please . Thank you. Comes from rhode island. Where he led the Defense Institute of International Legal study for the past three years. He has significant experience in military justice. Served a staff judge advocate multiple times. Chief of justice. Defense and seep yor defense counsel. At a trial counsel. Welcome steve and we are delighted to have you here. Please note todays meeting is being tribed and the complete transcript will be posted on the web site. At https. Whs. The written materials provided in preparation for the meeting are available on the dak ipad web site. Next i would like to recognize and introduce orvi military Service Representatives who will assist the committee with any policy questions that might arise. During the discussion. Could you please stand and identify yourself for the benefit of the commit tees and the members of the public . Thank you [ inaudible ] thank you very much. Im just going to reiterate what mr. Sullivan said. Each Public Meeting ib includes a period of time for Public Comment. The Committee Received to request for the Public Comment for todays meeting. If a member of the audience would like to comment on an issue please direct your question to the staff director. There. All Public Comments will be heard at the end of meeting and at the discretion of the chair. Well begin with an important reminder of why were all here. As we listen to the testimony of a courageous former air force seen your airmen. And Sexual Assault survivor about her unfortunate experience and hown it has affected her life. Next we will turn our focus the issue of the military transfer policy for Service Members who make an unrestricted report of Sexual Assault. Representatives for the department e. To date. After that, we will hear perspective from special victims counsel. And victims legal counsel. From each of the services about the Victims Council program. And how the expedited transfer policy is working in practice. The meeting will continue. Morning at 8 45 in this location. The focus of tomorrow will be on the legal and Sexual Assault response training received by commanders as well as the experience and handling Sexual Assault allegations. And expedited transfer request. Thaurng for joining us today. We are ready to begin the meeting. I would like to welcome miss hannah stol berg. Thank you for being here. We are honored to hear from you. Im sorry it will take a second to get situated here. Take your time. Id like to begin by letting you all know im so humble and honored that you would have me here today to share this with i you. I ask that you bare with me. Im very nervous. I have some word recall issues there might be pauses. It is just me trying to figure out what worldy decided to leav my head. Also deflect emotion with humor. Please dont be offended by anything ior say if i crack jok. Its crack jokes or watch me lay in the fetal position and cry. Humor is better. Thank you. Good afternoon i am retired Senior Airmen hannah stolberg. I was a which is the a if, c code for nerd. Also known as a contracting specialist. In the air force. Let me take a moment. Take all the time you want. Thank you. I was medically retired. Thank you. In may of last year. And i think whats shocking to some people is that i never ever deployed. My scariest encounters were tdy toit places like california. With a pop ligs of like seven t people. At the time. As well as air force base. And so i really didnt do anything that was that intensive. I wass reached back for contingency construction in san antonio, text texas. But in 2012 i was rape and had beaten almost to death by an air force nco. I spent almost two days in and out of consciousness on a concrete floor. It was over columbus day weekend. And when i didnt c show up to work no one even came to check on me. During the assault my arm my shoulder my right shoulder was dislocated. My left finger was fur fractured. My damage was done to my spine. And i didnt find out until a year and a half later that i received a traumatic brain injury. When i reported this to me command to try to get help, i was pulled into my Commanders Office with my commander and my superintendent who is our acting First Sergeant because we were a small squad is told sometimes its better to embrace the suck. I was told that nothing would be it was conveyed that there wouldnt be any help on that front. My superintendent didnt say anything, but his silence was agreement. Th his silence was he didnt question what my commander said. We just went along with it. This led to me trying very hard to suck it up. I didnt find out my femur was fractured for four months. I ran on it until it almost shattered. Every time i went to the doctor they toldd me i was just runnin too much. And it wasnt until a major realized that something was really wrong and sent me for a bone scan. That they realized the damage that had been done. On my commanders part, it wasnt handled well. But what i like to point out is that oftentimes we dont give the necessary training to those in charge. In order to give them to the tools on how to to deal with someone in this situation. Two years after this happened was when a will the of the scandal was coming out. And i remember our trainings on Sexual Assault increased a lot moreac awareness was going on. And i was pulled to the side by the same superintendent in acting First Sergeant andn he said we handled your situation wrong, what can i do to support you. What can i do to fix it . I like to point that out because as a Senior Master sergeant he had no real reason to stick up for mein at that point two year later. And put himself on the line. But he washe willing to put his stripes and his reputation on the line for Senior Airmen who was going through a medical board. And i would be medically retire. Thats really important to talk about the character of someone who has c so much humility to ce back and correct and address something thats handle wrong. In the aspect of what happened with fhim. It was truly lack of training. In lack of even knowing how to deal with this situation. As he never encountered it before. During my my Recovery Process was not very smooth. I spent time in patient at an intensive program for ptsd. In there i was in a unit with all military members. Both from combat and from mst. I metet woman and men from all branchs who had experienced military sexualil assault. Military sexual trama. And it was resounding across the board that the way this situations were being handled was not very well. I was pulled out of this program despite me saying i didnt think i was ready. The follow lg day i was given an epr by my command by my superintendent, my supervisor and told me that although i may have out performed my peers because i was in patient and unable to work, and the new system that came out i would be docked to a four. Because there werent enough fives to go around and i had been absent for to be in patient. This was on my birthday. And they took me to lunch and gave me a cake and had me side my epr. I went home and attempt td suicide. Obviously it didnt work. Im still here. I didnt have the saving grace was i didnt have access to a fire firearm at the time. I found every pill i could possibly take. The turning point when was i got involved with my branchs air force Wounded Warrior program. A doting was pint out for the branchs to create their own armies. The wtu. Im not sure the other ones. I became involved in the program at the very end of my time active duty. Me out to a they wanted toam take me out to an Adaptive Sports camp. And my command said i could go if i forfeit my 15 days of upon retirement. To go to the week long camp. I thought sure, its at the beach and i dont remember being at the beach. It was in florida. I went. And that was the turning point for me. I was taught that things that i didnt think i could over come, i could. I used to run believe it or not. Despite my physique now. I used to run quite a bit. And loved it. Not being able to run nymphs devastating to mme. At the camp they put me in a racing chair. For the first time in two years i felt the wind fly passed my helmet hair. And every sport they gave me from then on out helped me grow and helped me claim back some of the confidence. In the program i was also linked up with the mentor ship aspect of the program. And was given a mentor whose been an incredible help to my recovery as well. And finally the aspect that has helped the most is the ambassador program. Where i was taught to hopefully somewhats convey my story as i heal. And thats where chief Master Sergeant mckinly heard me speak at a briefing and asked me to attend. It was the support like this thatat helped me grow. And that helped me recover. Andat i think thats important point out. Is that the programs that have been put in place on can be very effective and can be helpful. As long as theres not push back from command. To be involved in them. When i i have spoken on several occasions, although not to this kind of room. So i apologize for my nerves. And i can remember the first time i heard someone speak about how they had been assaulted. And it made an impact on me becauseut when youre in the position, you know that others are out there. But theres such a stigma a shame surrounding it. No one speaks about it. You just know that theres other people floating out there and never know j who. I can remember hearing someone speak oner it. And i went up to him after wards and i can remember saying me too. If any of you are on social media you probably saw a trend happening this week. Of people hosting the hash tag me too. Thought what a man tra i didnt realize that was an international. These were the two International Words for people like us. Who have been through this. I have yet to speak anywhere to any crowd and not be approached after wards. And usually in a hushed whisper in a hushed tone. Be told, me too. Me too. The impact that more visibility by people who have been through trama and are recovering is something that cant be ignored. When you know you have someone whos been in the same position, you find strength in it. Im still learning to find my voice. I haten public speaking. This is an uncomfortable subject. But i remember being silenced and the pain and the absolute isolation that is brings. So even if my voice is just a whisper right now. Im humble and thankful you have listened to me. Im very humble and thankful that you would take these steps to try to protect and enforce better laws so in the future this hopefully wont future happen as much. Thank you. Thank you. I do have one question for you. If you dont mind. How long was it before from your attack until you were able to get to the program that was on the beachch that you found helpful . So the program has different its one of the words thats escaping me. One second. The program has different camps that go around each region in the u. S. O i didnt go to my first one until april of 2016. My assault happened in 2012. My meb started in its a good question. 2014. Is when my member officially started. It took a couple years. I will say that theres been strides made to catch people sooner. As soon as they start the process. And im not sure about the other branchs. I know on the air force side they have had a huge up tick in enrollment because they have been able to catch people faster. Had i been able to get into a program like this sooner, i might not be quite in the state i am today. I think my recovery would have beenee faster. And better. And not quite so rocky. But i have seen that on the side of the way that Sexual Assault is handled in general. Is handled in general. From i was saying earlier that i think if what happened tw me happened to me today and nott 2012 rkts it would be handled vastly different. And for that im thankful that strides are still being made to make this situation better and better. Did that good to see you again. When you got out of the hospital and went back to the unit, how were you integrated back into the unit and what kind of jobs did they give you . It sort of depended. I had multiple surgeries. Two surgeries on my shoulder and two on my femur to reconstruct. And then of course my state in patient. Id like to say when you treat someone like a monster they become a monster. And in general when this news kipd of came out and they didnt know what to do with me, they sort of squirrelled me away in cube. And gave me some random stuff to do. I took pride in my job. I wasnt going to win like airmen of the year. But i was very god good at my job. I took pride in what i did. And my work suffered after wards. Partas of it was undiagnosed pt. But part i of it fts just the of support and not really understanding how to go about getting help anymore. So i think its important to still engage with your members especially if they can still carry out the mission and taskings to be reduced to almost nothing was definitely one of the key factors in me attempting to take my own life. I had been stripped of my dignity. Of my job. Of my professional. Andd of my blue. Of my air force blue of my family. And to kind of be squirrelled away and kept in secret certainly didnt help. From your perspective, i know it happened in 2012. As you have seen as you have been speaking out and talking to people, where do you see the biggest need for improvement . I am devastated to say that at least half the people i talked to never reported anything. Theyre not going to be in your statistics. Not even in yourr restricted reports. Theyre sinl. They have been silent. I have talked to many people who have been in the same kind of situation where i have whereel they reached out and tried to get help. They were violencesilenced. I have met people who werent the victim but knew o the victi andir spoke out. And they w almost lost their li because of it. And nothing was done. Be i have encountered women and men. The numbers are shocking. That either didnt report it at all. Or never nothing ever really came ofit it. I understand that its very difficult to prosecute at times. But a lot of times the way its handled there at the beginning could be the key between going to a trial or not. For me when i was finally diagnosed withh a tbi they said we could have done more for you if you came in 24 to 48 hours after this happened. And 24 to 47 hours i was still lying onod a concrete floor. With no one even looking for me. One of the biggest disconnects is between leadership and i dont think its malicious, i think its just a lack of training. And ignorance to what to do in the situation. Its still to stigmatized that even commanders dont know what tide when you bring up the fact. Your courage is 2012. The part of the task of this particular community is to look at the the review process for cases that are investigated by they. Military. And so i dont know the background of the investigative process andnd whether there was one. And what your perspective is on that particular process. In your case. Okay. So whenfe i was trying to theres different avenues you cann take. As we all know. I took the avenue of reporting to my command. And when i was shut down and it was known made known that i wasnt going to be receiving. They werent going to have my back. I ended up after doing quite a bit ofo research in looking int just trends ando how things are how things go to trial the percentage of people who things are even prosecuted. And the percentage of action thats taken even from then, and to look at especially in the military. You see it come out in the base letters all the time. Someonee drove drunk and have been stripped of anything and kicked outh of the air force. Someone assaults someone and they go in for like a month. Reduced pay for nine months. Is that what my dignity was worth . Is that what my life is worth . And i see that from so many other people around me. For that reason, i chose to report restricted. Knowing that i had no one to support me. Im very sorry. Can i ask a question . Yes, maam. I joined the others in thanking you for your courage. Did anything happen to either the man wrote assaulted you or those higher ups that did not do anything to help you . Nothing happened with the man who assaulted me. As for my commander, because i was having such a hard time at work, i was assigned to help put together his retirement ceremony. And then he sat catty corner to me as a civilian for a year and a half. Thats happened to him. Hannah, is the air force so atid some point did you unrestrict your report . I have not. Im just speaking. At this point when i speak especially to other Wounded Warriors who have been in fields much more intense than mine, they tend to want to say where is this guy . Well get him. You didntt have justice. Lets bring justice. I say, someone told me yesterday that theres different kinds of justice. At this point im five years out. I have been through one heck of a Mental Health ride. And as im sure you can notice im not exactly rock solid. On the Mental Health aspect. So for me, this is my justice. My justice is trying to be a voice for those who are still silenced. My justice is speaking out against this. Thank you for doing that. Youre doing it very eloquently. Thank you, maam. I dont have a question. I want to speaking to us youre still trying to find your voice. I want to acknowledge you found it. I know you have places you want to go. Its a beautiful, strong thing. Thank you. Thank you, maam. Thank you so much for coming. And sharing your experience. Its been verys moving for us. Yes, maam. Thank you for having me. Recommend we take short break. Thats good. Were on recess