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Agence France-Presse

Arizona Senator Martha McSally, the first woman to fly in combat for the US Air Force, said she was raped by a superior officer while in the service.
McSally, 52, who spent 26 years in the Air Force and commanded a fighter squadron, revealed the attack in emotional remarks during a Senate subcommittee hearing Wednesday on sexual assault in the military.
“I am also a military sexual assault survivor but unlike so many brave survivors I didn’t report being sexually assaulted,” McSally said.
“Like so many women and men I didn’t trust the system at the time,” she said.
“I blame myself. I was ashamed and confused. And I thought I was strong but felt powerless.
“The perpetrators abused their position of power in profound ways,” the first-term Republican senator said.
“And in one case I was preyed upon and then raped by a superior officer.”

McSally, who served in the Air Force until 2010 and retired with the rank of colonel, said she kept quiet about the assault for many years.
“But later in my career, as the military grappled with scandals and their wholly inadequate responses, I felt the need to let some people know – I too was a survivor,” she said.
McSally said she considered leaving the military at one point.
“I decided to stay and continue to serve and fight and lead, to be a voice from within the ranks for women and then in the House and now in the Senate.”
McSally said military commanders needed to be better educated in handling sexual assault cases.
“We must ensure that all commanders are trained and empowered to take legal action, prosecute fairly and rid perpetrators from our ranks.”
She did not name the officer.

Captain Carrie Volpe, an Air Force spokeswoman, said the branch was appalled at and “deeply sorry” about what McSally had experienced.
“The criminal actions reported today by Senator McSally violate every part of what it means to be an Airman,” she said in a statement.
“And we stand behind her and all victims of sexual assault. We are steadfast in our commitment to eliminate this reprehensible behaviour and breach of trust in our ranks.”
Wednesday’s hearing was not the first time that McSally had spoken out about her own experience being sexually assaulted.
Last year, while running for Senate, McSally told The Wall Street Journal that she had been pressured by her high school athletic coach into having sex with him when she was 17.

McSally lost a close race in November to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema but was later appointed by the Arizona governor to fill the seat once held by John McCain, who died in August.
She is expected to contend for the Senate again in 2020 and may face a potentially tough race against former astronaut and US Navy veteran Mark Kelly, who is seeking the Democratic nomination.
Republican Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, who is also a military veteran, revealed earlier this year that she had been raped while in college.
In a report released in May 2018, the Pentagon said the number of sexual assault cases reported by service members rose by about 10 per cent in fiscal 2017.
It said the Pentagon received 6,769 reports of sexual assault involving service members as either victims or subjects of criminal investigation.
Additional reporting by Associated Press and The Washington Post


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Sexual harassment and assault

Arizona Senator Martha McSally, first woman to fly in combat for the US Air Force, reveals superior officer raped her

Senator Martha McSally: ‘Like so many women and men I didn’t trust the system at the time’. Photo: AP

FILE--Air Force pilot Martha McSally is seen in this April, 1993 file photo at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas. McSally, the Air Force's highest-ranking female fighter pilot, sued on Monday, Dec. 3, 2001 to try to overturn a policy requiring servicewomen to wear restrictive Muslim clothing when off base in Saudi Arabia. Female military personnel in Saudi Arabia must wear black head-to-foot robes called abayas and ride in the back seat when off base. (AP Photo/File)

Lt. Col. Martha McSally stands with her A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft. The colonel is the first female pilot in the Air Force to fly in combat and to serve as a squadron commander of a combat aviation squadron. (U.S. Air Force photo)

Representative Martha McSally and US President Donald Trump arrive at a "Make America Great" rally in Mesa, Arizona on October 19, 2018. - US President Donald Trump said Friday, October 19, 2018, that he found credible Saudi Arabia's assertion that dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi died as a result of a fight. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP)

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The Arizona Republican said she didn’t report instances of sexual assault while in the military because she, like others, didn’t trust the system
McSally spent 26 years in the US Air Force, and was the first female to command a fighter squadron in combat


Martha McSally shakes the US Senate with an unprecedented statement describing her rape by a senior Air Force officer.


US Politics