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Defense fund set up for Natalie Longee -
Indigenous female soldier fights two wars
A column
By Hazel Bonner
January 28 2004
I did a story on this the first week of December. This is my follow up on this. Please respond with donations to the defense fund for this young lady and with letters to the congressmen named in the column.
Family, friends and supporters have established a Defense Fund for Specialist Natalie Longee who reported being raped by an enlisted man at Ft. Hood, Texas in January 2003. She was deployed to Iraq less than two months later without any resolution of the complaint, counseling for the rape or prosecution of the perpetrator. She reported that she was taunted, harassed, and physically assaulted while serving in Iraq.
It is ironic that a defense fund has to be set up for the victim of such incredible acts of cowardice on the part of men who call themselves soldiers. Everyone reading this column is urged to send at least $1.00 to the Natalie Longee Defense Fund, P.O. Box 453, Andale, Kansas 67701. I incorrectly reported that her name was Amy previously.
Imagine, if you can, being a soldier, proud to be serving your country, and being raped by a fellow enlisted man whom you considered a friend. Further imagine being deployed to Iraq a short time later and being placed under the unit leadership of a man who had been the roommate of the perpetrator at Ft. Hood Texas. The Sergeant making the assignment knew about the rape when he assigned this man as her team leader.
Everyone in her unit ended up knowing about the rape. They taunted her and threatened her, calling her their “favorite little Indian girl.” She was nicknamed “torso.” When new soldiers were deployed to her unit, she was introduced to them as Torso. When they asked why, they were told with great relish about the rape. She was told that she should just kill herself.
Her unit leader pointed a loaded, locked weapon at her more then once. She and friends were shot with slingshots containing rocks, candy, and other items until they drew blood. Any friends who continued to be around her became objects of torment also.
When she asked to see the chaplain numerous times, the request was denied. She was told to forget the rape and move on. She would read her Bible before a mission, for her own peace and was taunted about believing her God would protect her. She was nearly killed three times during the 8 months she was in Iraq in ambush attacks while guarding the convoys she was assigned to escort...
Longee was given a dog that was abused by anther unit. Her Sgt. took a loaded weapon after the dog planning on shooting it. Friends called to ask if a dog kill had been authorized and the order returned was no dog kill because the dog was a puppy and not aggressive.
In spite of it being common knowledge that Longee was being so traumatized by her own unit, nothing as of yet has happened to these men. Her team leader physically hit her. However, it now appears the FBI may be entering the investigation because of the major dereliction of duty, and actual crimes, involved in the acts.
When a stateside investigator finally interviewed her, the interview took place on a satellite phone outside in Iraq. The static was so loud she could not understand everything that she was being asked. While on the phone she was made to answer in a criminal investigative interview, confidential details of the rape in response to questions, in front of soldiers who could overhear what was being said.
Finally, she received two weeks R & R leave just before Thanksgiving. R&R was given as rest and relaxation for soldiers serving in Iraq for their service and sacrifice to the United States government. As Spc. Longee, prepared to leave Iraq, a name and phone number was pressed in her hand and she was told to deal with the issue of the rape while she his home. This was the military’s thank you to Longee for her service.
The local paper, Wichita Eagle had written periodic stories about her and she became a local hero. They welcomed her back home as a hero. Now the rape has reached the media and they continue to write about her, but no longer like the hero that she is, as all emphasis is on the rape now. Her 3 years of faithful military service doesn’t seem to be anything to the United States government now.
Andale is a community of less that 800. Its residents are nearly 98 percent white with one half percent shown as American Indian. The Wichita Eagle, the closest daily newspaper, reported in March, 2003 that Longee was being deployed to Iraq. She thought she was leaving the sexual assault behind in combat service to her country. She would soon find how wrong that belief was.
It was her second deployment in her short military career. She had previously been deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to guard detainees at the detention camp set up after the bombing of the World Trade Center. It was there she met the perpetrator and they became friends.
I spoke with Longee’s mother, Margaret Vague, and several other people on January 22 and 23. Amy Herdy, the Denver Post reporter who had worked on articles exposing mistreatment of women soldiers in the military, visited her in Andale, Kansas in late November, 2003, while she was home on leave. Longee agreed to go with family members to meet with others in Washington. The family paid more than $3,000 for the trip.
While in Washington, Longee met with staff in Senator Kennedy’s office, Representative Donald Moore and Senator Sam Brownback, both of Kansas, Elizabeth Dole and others. The Pentagon became involved and asked for her written statement about what happened.
She produced a twelve-page statement. While producing that statement she had to reveal details about her treatment in Iraq. The emotional trauma of telling what happened to her was more then she could handle and she broke down.
When she returned home, she saw a therapist who visited her at her home and she became so distraught, the therapist recommended she be hospitalized. She was taken to Good Shepherd Hospital in Wichita, Kansas.
Relatives who called and visited her became concerned about what they considered to be overmedication. She was barely able to converse with them. Vague contacted her one morning and was told that she was not there. She called the Washington contacts and was informed after phone calls by them that the military had taken Longee to Ft. Hood early that morning. Initially Longee was told that she would be deployed back to Iraq.
Longee talked to her mother from Texas, however on the second day at military hospital, the phones suddenly quit working. All contact with family ceased. Her mother became very concerned and traveled to the Fort Hood military base where her daughter was being held. When her mother arrived she observed her daughter undergoing interrogation, which they called “the investigation”, for hours each day, for a week long, sometimes from morning till 6:00 in the evening. Each day when Vague was with her daughter after the interview, it was very apparent that she had been crying. Spc. Longee said they told her incident “wasn’t really rape” and “that she had allowed it to happen”. Vague says, “This isn’t an investigation it is pure torture and attempted brainwashing.”
On the night of the rape Longee was asleep and woke up with the perpetrator on top of her. The perpetrator first claimed that he had not had sex with her; DNA tests proved that to be a lie. He has never been charged, never deployed to Iraq, and remains on duty at Ft. Hood a year after the rape was reported.
Longee has now been released from the hospital and is back on active duty. She is assigned to a job in which she has to report daily to the same room where the perpetrator works. She now processes warrants on the base.
Her assailant stalked her after the rape until she was deployed and now has a no contact order which the military says is not violated by her job assignment unless he speaks to her. If that is the way no contact orders in the military work, apparently the they do not understand how intimidating being in the same room with the perpetrator can be.
Longee was recently assigned a different investigator. This is the fifth or sixth time the case has been passed off to someone else. She has been asked to take a polygraph and agreed to do so. Can she expect the same from her attacker?
The strength she has exhibited is astounding. She was so proud to enter the military and serve her country; however she has been totally devastated by her experience.
She is fighting two wars. She was almost killed three times in Iraq and she had to kill in combat ambushes. During that combat duty she was being treated worse than an animal by her fellow soldiers, was harassed, taunted and physically assaulted. Now the military has apparently told her that they will let her out of the military if she drops the rape complaint. Longee indicated that she did not want to drop the complaint, but she is tired of the battle and wants out.
Donna Jalynne Inkelaar, of Andale, in a letter to the Killeen Daily Herald, said “If young women like Natalie Longee are defending the rights of others, shouldn’t we speak out to make sure her rights are protected, as well.” Most certainly, she is correct.
Vague says, “Natalie was a happy, thriving, young woman, healthy, intelligent and very gung-ho about going into the military. They have attempted to destroy her. She fought in Iraq to bring freedom to them while she was being treated as though she had no freedom or rights. They destroyed her military career. Now they are sending her home broken mentally, physically and emotionally. It’s like they’re saying, we screwed you up, now get out.”
Our nation under law should be doing the utmost to protect Specialist Natalie Longee. Instead they are protecting her perpetrator and those whose incredible cowardice so deeply wounded her. She should receive the highest medal of valor and courage and a purple heart for injury during combat. This can certainly not be classified as accidental friendly fire.
Bonner is a free lance writer who writes from her home. She can be reached electronically at hbonpidge1 at hotmail.com; by phone at (605)343-4467; or by mail at PO Box 3712, Rapid City, SD 55709-3712.
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