When officers aren't gentlemen.

• Author: Deley, Thea
• Position: Letters to the Editor - Letter to the editor

Thank you for the recent article on women in the military and the sexual harassment they endure ("A Peculiar Version of Friendly Fire," by Traci Hukill, January issue). My father served in the Army for twenty years so I grew up on military bases. Although I have many fond memories of those times, I also remember being terrified of American GIs when I was a little girl. Sometimes they would whistle or leer or make crude sexual comments I was too young then to understand. Misogyny pervaded everything. Even the PX bookstores carried comic books denigrating women.

Thea Deley via e-mail

In her article, Hukill uses the term "command rape" to describe an incident in which a superior allegedly sexually assaulted enlisted personnel. The terminology does not represent terms utilized in the field of sexual assault prevention or within the military community. The appropriate terminology is "abuse of power rape." The terminology was defined by military case law...