The Department of Defense released sobering statistics last year about sexual assault in the military. They found that only about 25 percent of service members who experienced unwanted sexual contact in 2023 reported the assault. Those who did report made up 6.8 percent of active-duty women and 1.3 percent of active-duty men. Of the 8,515 reports filed, only 1,821 cases were determined to have sufficient evidence to take disciplinary action against the alleged assailants.
When service members are assaulted and unable or unwilling to report the assault, or when the reports they file are dismissed or belittled, the physical and mental health impacts can worsen. Veterans who were assaulted while serving their country deserve justice. After they have completed their service, they deserve to receive Veterans Administration benefits that recognize and help cope with the harms.
NJP supports veterans in pursuit of their rights. They are veterans like Luci, who shares her story here.
Luci’s story
I grew up in Washington State and enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2018. In 2019, another Marine sexually assaulted me. He did so repeatedly. I was too afraid to say anything for a couple of years, but I built up the courage to say something. In 2021, I met with a Sexual Assault Response Coordinator, and with her help I filed a report, hoping it might get me justice.
Instead, everything spiraled downward. My command Sergeant Major initially seemed sympathetic, but then started treating me cruelly – something I later found out she had done to other female service members who, like me, were seeking help. She discarded my valid complaint against another male service member for sexual harassment and told me that no matter what I did to try to protect myself from predatory people, I would always be a target. All of this and more after she had pretended to be someone I could trust; she coaxed the details of my trauma out of me and used it against me like a weapon later.
I requested mast (making an appeal higher up the chain of command). I would have been fine with an apology, but my case was dismissed due to the offending Sergeant Major's retirement. Every time I had tried to ask for help, I had either been denied, lied to, or dismissed outright.
I left the Marine Corps in August of 2022. Initially, I lacked direction and bounced around Southern California and Illinois before returning to Washington in the spring of 2023. I found a job in Seattle at an educational nonprofit, where I've now been for over a year.
When I tried filing for disability on my own, I struggled with the Veteran Administration's (VA) online portal. I was fighting their website for over a year. That's when I was referred to the Northwest Justice Project (NJP) through a Washington State veteran’s resource.
Once NJP started helping, everything became easier. My attorney, Marcos, documented my experience thoroughly so I wouldn't have to relive my trauma by telling my story repeatedly. Marcos moved quickly, submitting my application before a crucial deadline.
The result changed my life. I received an 80% disability rating, including for PTSD, with monthly benefits, and over $40,000 in back pay. Now I have a lot less anxiety about my financial situation if I ever lose my job or get laid off. I was able to pay off my car and am now debt-free. For the first time, I am now house hunting.
I plan on going to school. I have been accepted to Washington State University's global campus for Fall 2025. I plan to major in Criminal Justice – my goal is to become a lawyer someday and provide advocacy for people who need it.
Through my current work, I see a lot of people who could use similar help to get their lives together. Homeless veterans living on the streets who aren’t able to afford advocacy and who don’t have access to medical care, people who are unable to navigate the system to receive the benefits they deserve. One such person that I met that I still think about today was unable to see—the VA doctors had messed up his glaucoma surgery and he was worse off than he had been before.
If I could say anything to other people who may be in a situation like I was, it’s that there’s no shame in asking for help, especially when it comes to working with a bureaucracy as large and unwieldy as the VA. NJP treated me with a level of dignity and humanity that I had forgotten that I deserved. They made the process of claiming my VA benefits easy and stress-free. My experience with NJP has significantly changed my life for the better.