Dalina Estella, a US Marine, broke into tears after finding out that a Marine who had been found guilty of sexual misconduct against her would remain in the US Marine Corps.
Dalina was called to testify at a hearing and determine the accused’s future in the military but she was shaken to care when it was decided to retain him in the military.
Following the decision, Dalina posted a disturbing TikTok in which she shared the details of the incident. According to Dalina, the military acknowledged the assault but instead of punishing them, retained him so that her trauma could be a character-building lesson for him.
This is exactly why females in the military kill themselves. This exactly why nobody takes us seriously.
U.S Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin also spoke about the spark ignited by the video.
Regarding the video, I found it deeply disturbing and I’ve asked my staff for additional info and I’ll leave it at that.
In the military’s latest anonymous survey, the majority of service members reporting retaliation were women and had made an unrestricted report of sexual assault. Dalina said that she was expecting retaliation as well and there was a lot of misinformation spread to discredit her.
Laura Palumbo from National Sexual Violence Resource Centre blamed the hierarchical structure in the military and revealed that the Marine who perpetrated Dalina sexually was a uniformed victim advocate within the military.
In military, there is emphasis on unit cohesion and the chain of command that creates barriers for victims of sexual harassment.
Prior to Dalina’s video, the murder of Army Spc. Vanessa Gillén who had reported her alleged killer’s harassment to superiors several times had galvanized service members and veterans to share their stories of harassment.
Leave a Reply