UW-Milwaukee Veterans Fight for More Than Liberty

UW-Milwaukee student Amanda Dahms was a voluntary Marine Corps service member who enlisted when she was 17-years-old. She went to boot camp the following day after her high school graduation in 2006.

After finishing boot camp, she went to the school house and then to the fleet. Dahms said that she was a survivor of sexual harassment and sexual assault. The case was ultimately dropped because the process was lagging and her reputation was scarred because of it.

“Those two years are the first two years I was in the fleet were so hard for me and in 2008 I volunteered to deploy just to get away from it,” Dahm said. When I went to Afghanistan, I was able to rebuild my confidence because I was away from the constant sexual harassment and hazing and being the only female, I got to go overseas and actually discover who I was and I was stronger for it.”

Amanda was a Bulk Fuel Specialist. She worked with 100,000 gallons of fuel on any day being a Fueler. She was also a Lab Tech where she tested fuel confirming it was ready for the aircrafts and a Fuel Accountant when she was increasing in rank. She was a Corporal throughout her time with the Marines but left with Sergeant ranking.

Dahm’s story carries an underlying thread that some others share who served in the military. Military Sexual Trauma affects both male and female military members.

“Some of the difficulties that these men and women will go through are strong emotions, feeling of numbness, having trouble sleeping, hard to keep attention, concentration or memory, alcohol or drugs use, difficulty with things that remind them of the experience of sexual trauma, difficulties in relationships to physical health problems,” according to an MST military pamphlet on campus.

At UWM, there are others who have gone through similar situations, finding comfort in places such as the Military and Veteran Resource Center also known as MAVRC, the Women’s Resource Center to Norris Health Center. Director of MAVRC Michael Kirchner reflects on why a center like this is so important to have on a college campus.

“There aren’t a whole lot of spots on a college campus especially a commuter campus like UWM where non- traditional students feel like there is a spot that they can go,” Kirchner said. “And when you talk about being older having these life experiences that are quite a bit different from the majority of the rest of campus. It can be isolating, there can be a sense of loneliness or even asking yourself do I really belong here on a college campus.”

Over 1,000 military and student Veterans attend UWM. More veterans attend UWM than any other four-year school in the six-state region. However, more female veterans use their educational benefits opposed to male veterans. 15-17 percent of UWM’s Veterans are females. This according to a military pamphlet outside of MAVRC and my interview with Mr. Kirchner.

Besides learning in detail about the demographic of the military community that attends UWM, Kirchner discussed how the military is trying to become more inclusive with their female military members. Different from how it was years prior, women are gaining opportunities to be where they want to be, not limited.

Besides just being more inclusive, Kirchner reflected on the fact that the military is being progressive in educating military members on bringing attention to the sexual trauma members go through. Ever since January of 2013, the ban has been lifted for women to actively serve in combat, so addressing sexual trauma is of high importance for the Military to focus on.

“…That is common in the military and it’s been a growing concern, and I give credit to the Department of Defense for recognizing that concern and taking steps to address it…”

He also continued by revealing that male service members are more so sexually assaulted than female service members. According to the GQ magazine article Son Men Don’t Get Raped, “According to the Pentagon, thirty-eight military men are sexually assaulted every single day.”
Director of the Women’s Resource Center Susan McCarthy reflected on how the military is addressing sexual violence.

“I know that the military has had long standing issues with how it addresses the problem of sexual violence in its environment and they have been working in particular in the Air Force…you will see that they are doing a lot to try and improve their attention to the problem. To support survivors, to hold offenders accountable, to create a culture that is less supportive of sexual violence and other forms of violence against women…”