Denim Day: Supporting victims everywhere

Marine Corps Base Quantico -- “A woman in Italy was raped. The Italian Supreme Court found the accused individual to be innocent of the crime. The woman was said to have worn jeans that were so tight she must have helped to remove her jeans, thus consenting to sexual assault. Women in Parliament wore jeans to work to protest and step up for survivors,” said Staff Sgt. Kenneth Kelch, unit victim advocate for Marine Corps Air Facility (MCAF). In support of this message MCAF held a Denim Day in which the unit wore denim blue jeans to work on April 22 in honor of April, which is Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

“Sexual assault or unwanted physical contact is a crime and not tolerated in the Marine Corps,” said Kelch. “Denim day is a wake-up call, and today we are supporting victims everywhere.”

According to Lt. Col. William Pacatte, MCAF commander, a recent command climate survey showed that 88 percent of Marines said that they have seen a sexual assault occur or saw an event in which a sexual assault could happen.

During Fiscal Year 2015, 807 sexual assaults were reported in the Marine Corps. So far this year there are 376 reports.

“There is a steady decline, but there are close to 800 reported assaults just in the Marine Corps alone,” said Pacatte.

The group discussed prevention efforts that begin with bystander intervention. Marines were urged to step up to direct intervention, delegate to security or leadership, and distract to redirect a potential assault.

“Whether it’s direct, delegate or distract, we should have the moral courage and situational awareness to step up,” said Pacatte.

The number one goal of the program is to not have victims. Staff Sgt. Andrew Myers and Staff Sgt. Kenneth Kelch are the unit victim advocates for MCAF. Their responsibilities include taking restricted or unrestricted sexual assault reports and preventing future assaults though awareness and unit training.

“I wish I could say we didn’t have these issues. But we do, this is a real thing,” said Pacatte. “If we all do our part we can prevent and eliminate sexual assault, hopefully we can eradicate this throughout the Marine Corps.”

A poster was signed by each Marine in attendance as a pledge to eliminate sexual assault.