Recent reports reveal that an exemplary sergeant from the Army National Guard, Morgan Robinson, took her own life at the age of 29 after she was allegedly sexually abused by some of her colleagues.
According to the mother of the deceased, Debbie Robinson, the Army did not offer any protection to her abused child, which led to her suicide in 2018.
The distraught parent blamed the military institution for the death of her daughter as she stated, “To think that that’s what took her life – that’s what broke her” and elaborated further by saying, “They wanted her body. And they took her soul.”
Apparently, the sexual abuse started approximately two years after Robinson was deployed in Kuwait in 2016, and one of her commanding officers took advantage of her on numerous occasions.
However, even though Morgan tried to complain about the molestation to the upper levels of command, nobody did anything to stop the sexual assaults or address the problem.
Later on, when Robinson was stationed in Afghanistan in 2018, she was raped again, but this time by multiple men, who grouped on her.
Following the second and more brutal assault, Morgan reportedly decided it was better to keep what happened to herself, as she was afraid to report the incident and killed herself.
The mom stated: “She was very scared. Because they threatened her, number one. And number two, she knew that it wouldn’t go anywhere. Nothing happened in Kuwait with the sexual assault and the harassment, so why would they do something, you know, in Afghanistan?”
After the suicide, the case was inspected by the military, and Debbie received papers detailing what has happened, but the text was heavily censored.
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The redacted report read in part: “Sergeant Robinson suffered sexual, physical, and psychological trauma while deployed. The sequela of this trauma was a factor in her death.”
Army’s principal policy adviser Elizabeth Van Winkle said in a statement: “The department remains committed to our goals of ending sexual assault in the military, providing the highest quality response to service members and holding offenders appropriately accountable.”
The grieving mother was shocked by the report, as she exclaimed, “I just didn’t understand how they could actually stand there and look me in the eyes, and hand that to me” and expressed bewilderment at the fact that the Army investigated itself.
Robinson, who joined the Army National Guard in 2010, enjoyed serving, and her legacy is now tied to a piece of legislation, (I am Vanessa Guillen Bill), that wants to improve the military’s response to sexual assault.
