The Invisible War (2012)

Kori Cioca is one of the victims in "The Invisible War,"
a documentary about rape in the U.S. military.

One of many disturbing statistics in director Kirby Dick’s “The Invisible War”—a stark, revealing and infuriating documentary tracing the chilling culture of rape and sexual abuse in the United States military—informs that twenty-percent of female veterans were victims of sexual assault while serving. Because these institutions are set up to police themselves, many victims never come forward to report crimes and the few that do face professional retaliation, shame, interrogation and threats.

The lack of accountability has spawned a dark faction across all branches of military that experts call a prime, target-rich environment for predatory criminals. One study of the Navy found that fifteen-percent of incoming recruits attempted or committed rape before enlisting. The armed forces have done little to stem the tide of horrific behavior pervading its ranks—out of three thousand perpetrators, only 175 faced any jail time.

The movie chronicles several heartbreaking stories of abuse through interviews, a constant theme being the brutal, violent nature of attacks and the lasting physical and emotional scars they leave. Trina McDonald picked the Navy over a basketball scholarship but ended up drugged and repeatedly raped during her service at a secluded base in Alaska; Elle Helmer, a Lieutenant in the Marine Corps, was ordered to consume alcohol and then brutally raped by her company commander; Hannah Sewell was locked in a hotel and raped by a fellow Naval recruit; Ariana Klay, a Marine Lieutenant, was told by a senior officer that female marines are used for sex, and when she was raped, to ignore it.

A key subject emerges in Kori Cioca, a petite blonde who served in the Coast Guard and was savagely raped and beaten by her supervisor. The attack on Cioca was so severe it led to a broken jaw that left her unable to eat anything but soft foods. She now lives in Ohio with her husband and a young daughter, still fighting for proper medical coverage for her injuries and regularly dealing with post traumatic stress disorder and nightmares. Her assailant, like so many, never faced charges.

“The Invisible War” is based on a 2011 lawsuit on behalf of Cioca and several others against two former U.S. defense secretaries, alleging essentially that the military system, which deals with misconduct in-house and without any independent investigators, deprives rape survivors the constitutional right of due process. The result of the case is shocking, infuriating and sad.

Servicewomen are told to report crimes to their superior, but thirty-three percent didn't because the person to report was a friend of the rapist; twenty-five percent didn't report because the person to report to was the rapist. The film talks about a 1991 Navy sex scandal involving gang rapes in a hotel that made headlines and the “great wall of silence” that followed to protect the guilty. Today, the military continues to defy and deflect questions even when under Congressional scrutiny.

At a time when the American military is generally lauded and lionized, routinely labeled heroic, and emboldened to a degree that legitimate questions and criticism bring ridiculous charges of anti-patriotism, what "The Invisible War" and its brave subjects accomplish by uncovering these ugly, dangerous truths is more of a symbol of genuine heroism than anything with a gun or rank. The people in the armed forces could learn a lot from it if they weren’t so busy trying to cover it up.