An anonymous person at the Air Force Academy said Feb. 23 that they survived a sexual assault.

This information was shared via text messaging used during a Q&A session at the “Raising Our Voices: Surviving Sexual Assault” presentation in Fairchild Hall that day.

“One in six boys is sexually assaulted by the age of 18,” said Dr. Kimberly Dickman, Academy sexual assault response analyst and the school’s Sexual Assault and Response Program manager.

“Nationally, one in four women will be victims of sexual assault.”

Dickman hosted the “Raising Our Voices” event during the National Character and Leadership Symposium, which featured diverse guests who shared their experiences with cadets, staff and visiting college students.

“There are survivors [of sexual assault] in this room. For them, just being back on this campus is an act of bravery,” she said to a group of 50 cadets, service members and civilians. “There are survivors in this room, there are spouses of survivors, and there are mothers and fathers of survivors.”

One survivor of sexual assault at the event who was anything but anonymous, was NCLS guest speaker Brenda Tracy of Oregon. Four men sexually assaulted Tracy in 1998. Three were Oregon State football players.

Tracy said sexual assault is like dropping a block of cement in a pond and watching the ripples affect the victim, families and friends. 

 “I have a father who still wants to kill those men who raped me,” she said.

Tracy reported the crime in 1998 but didn’t publically identify herself as the victim until 2014.

“I spent 16 years in a prison of shame and silence,” she said. “I was desperate. I spent 16 years wanting to die.”

Tracy said her life dramatically improved after she came forward.

“I was living a double life before and it’s really hard to live a double life,” she said. “I literally walked out of my prison of shame and silence. I survived a gang [rape], but I’m strong.”

These days, Tracy is a busy mother and grandmother who regularly speaks at college campuses to encourage academic communities to join the fight against sexual assault. 

“The crisis right now is that 10 percent of men are the problem but 90 percent are the solution,” she said. “I need that other 90 percent to get loud.”

Tracy said “victim blaming” by faculty and students across the U.S. is prevalent.

“Not just at the military academies -- it’s everywhere,” she said.

One hindrance to giving victims the correct care, Tracy said, is that institutions are loathe to deal with or admit that a student or employee could have been victimized. Often, institutions worry about corporate image instead of adequately addressing the crime, she said.

“As individuals, we all have the power to change that,” she said.

Tracy summed up her work as “trying to change the culture.”

“We all have to do our part,” she said. “It’s about respect and communication.”

Along with Dickman and Tracy, Anne Munch spoke to the group. Munch is a 27-year career prosecutor and advocate for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. She’s worked extensively on the military’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response programs, including the Academy’s program. Her input led to installing victim advocates and Special Victims Counsels across the DOD and the Academy. 

“[Sexual assault] is so fundamentally wrong -- which is the understatement of the day,” she said.

Munch said sexual assault needs to be studied globally instead of locally.

“This is not a problem that is unique to [the Academy],” she said. “Every single community across the world struggles with how to do this.”