Military Review English Edition March-April 2014 | Page 34

harassment and assault within our ranks. From
demanding more realistic, scenario-based training
that focuses both on how to intervene and how
to extract oneself (or others) from a potentially
disastrous situation, to having candid discussions
about alcohol consumption, we have found that
junior soldiers are waiting to be engaged on this
issue. We stand to lose their attention or stifle their
good suggestions, however, when our SHARP
engagement always consists of senior noncommissioned and commissioned officers lecturing them
in formal settings. The more we listen, the more
likely we are to get buy-in for the SHARP program
within our ranks and learn a little along the way.

Conclusion
More than 12 years into sustained combat, the
American public has a great deal of confidence
in the military as an institution.5 Yet, no issue
threatens to erode this trust and confidence more
than our failure to truly address the epidemic of

sexual harassment and assault within our ranks.
Warfighting is fundamentally a human endeavor,
and our most precious resource is not a piece of
equipment or a technological platform but individual soldiers—America’s sons and daughters
entrusted to our care. If we lose the trust and
confidence of the public, we threaten to tear the
social fabric of our institution and profession.
Few organizations place a higher premium on
the publication and wide dissemination of after
action reviews, lessons learned, and best practices
than the U.S. Army. Few do self-critique better
than the Army, and the quality of the Army’s
assessments proves the Army to be a learning
organization that constantly seeks to adapt and
improve. Let us approach sharing knowledge on
combating sexual harassment and assault with the
same rigor, passion, and intellectual energy that
we have displayed in fighting the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan. Our soldiers deserve nothing