Nomad first highlighted the unhappy campers of K-16, and I have been meaning to comment on this, but have been busy typing up my Chipyong-ni series instead.  Anyway the weekend is coming up and now is as good as time as any to discuss this:

A new policy restricting some soldiers at K-16 Air Base from having guests of the opposite sex in their dorm rooms is being criticized by the troops as overly harsh, but their commander claims it’s necessary to protect them.

Lt. Col. Tom Climer — commander of the 2nd Aviation Battalion, 2nd Aviation Regiment — set the policy Feb. 7 following a recent alleged sexual assault on the small base on the outskirts of Seoul.

The policy applies to both military and civilian personnel. Failure to obey could result in a soldier facing punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Soldiers who contacted Stars and Stripes on Monday said they feel they’re being unfairly punished for another’s misconduct.

“Obviously, this brings morale down unbelievably,” said a female Army private first class during a phone interview. “It’s mass punishment for just a few that have been repeatedly in trouble.”

I am a strong advocate of no sex in the barracks and let me tell you why.  More sexual assaults happen in USFK than what you see in the Stars and Stripes and it is not always male on female either.  I have lost count of the number of male on male sexual assaults I am privy to including ones that happened in my battalion.  Just about every single one of these sexual assaults I’m privy to, involved alcohol.  A typical example is female and male soldiers are drunk in one of their barracks rooms and the female passes out and the drunk male soldier takes advantage of the female.  The, "I was drunk and didn’t mean it", is not an excuse.  Being drunk and committing sexual assault is the same as if you did it sober and I have no sympathy for you and you are going to jail.  The typical male on male sexual assault I have seen I’m sad to say, have involved superiors taking advantage of passed out subordinate soldiers.  Here is a perfect example for you:

An Army second lieutenant was sentenced at a court-martial on Tuesday to one year in jail for sexually assaulting a private and making a false official statement afterward.

Second Lt. Phuong Quach of the 2nd Infantry Division’s 302nd Brigade Support Battalion also will forfeit his pay and be dismissed from the Army after serving his sentence, military judge Col. Gregory Gross said.

I don’t know how many sexual assault incidents have happened on K-16; if multiple sexual assaults happened I can understand LTC Climer’s reaction to ban the opposite sex from each others rooms.  So since I don’t understand the context of the decision made on K-16 I don’t see the use in condemning the decision, it may very well be a good one..   

From my personal experience the best way I have found to handle male and females in the barracks is to have an open door policy.  If a member of the opposite sex is in a room the door has to be open.  In the barracks policy you have to put in the policy, wide open with the door securely propped open because if you don’t put wide open with the door securely propped, soldiers will leave only a crack in the door or claim that the door accidentally closed shut if they are caught with the door closed and a member of the opposite sex in their room.  Like I have said before soldiers aren’t stupid, just some people like to think they are.

By having an open door policy combined with CQ and staff duty patrols, the barracks are made much safer.  Additionally an E7 and up roster should be established to patrol the barracks around the curfew hours on the weekends.  Just having a senior leadership presence around tends to modify behavior significantly.  Additionally have the senior leaders turn door knobs.  If the door is not locked, walk in there and turn on the lights and see what is going on.  Usually it just people sleeping in their rooms, but if you wake people up at night because they didn’t lock their door, they will eventually make it a habit to lock their doors when they go to sleep, which creates conditions that can further prevent sexual assaults.  The open door policy is a good compromise between soldier quality of life and command barracks safety concerns. 

Then combine this policy with continuous soldier education.  Once again, I can’t stress this enough, soldiers aren’t stupid.  I am a big believer in educated soldiers make good decisions, so educate them.  Every time a sexual assault happens within USFK read it during final formation on a Friday to the soldiers and thoroughly discuss what happened, it will sink in.  With the high turnover of soldiers in Korea you have to keep hitting this issue over and over again to make sure it sinks into the new guys. 

With all that said, I am additionally against sex in the barracks because it protects soldiers from fraudulent claims of sexual assault brought against them.  If a soldier willingly goes back to a hotel with another soldier, it is tougher to prove sexual assault because why else would you go to the hotel if you weren’t planning to have sex?  It doesn’t mean sexual assault can’t happen in a hotel, but it makes it harder to prove compared to a sexual assault committed in the barracks.  Then you have to take in the consideration of others (called CO2 for us Army types) factor as well.  How many roommates want to listen to their roommate having sex in their room every night?  I received plenty of complaints from soldiers about this.  The open door policy creates better soldier quality of life for these soldiers that don’t want to listen to their roommates having sex in the barracks, but don’t want them to get in trouble either. 

I used to show my soldiers exactly where to get free condoms at in the unit aid station and where the nearest 25,000 won hotel was.  Go knock yourselves out, but don’t do it in the barracks.  However, like this latest rape conviction in Osan proves that even if you ban all members of the opposite sex from a persons room it will not stop all rapes:

A week later she had returned to her room after a night of heavy drinking, she testified, and when she awoke, Parker was raping her.

“I was shocked,” she testified. “I didn’t remember if I had let him into my room. When I looked up, his face was like, right here,” she said and held her hand just a few inches beyond her face.

Special Agent Derrick Jackson of the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations testified that Parker lied initially when questioned.

Parker told OSI he had entered the woman’s room at her invitation. But when confronted with footprint and other evidence that he had entered through her window, he admitted that he had, Jackson testified.

It is important to remember that there are sexual predators out there that will commit rape no matter what policy there is.  So whatever policies are created they need to balance soldier quality of life with command safety concerns, but personal safety habits like locking your doors at night and general common sense goes along ways to creating an environment that prevents sexual assaults as well.