Navy sexual assault survivors could soon be able to request a rapid relocation or even an expedited discharge to help them reset their lives after the traumatic incident. Sailors who have been the victims of sexual assault could soon request and receive an expedited discharge from the service, the Navy’s top officer said Thursday.

The discharge would be honorable and would allow victims to continue accessing counseling and medical treatment, with the option of re-enlisting later should they choose to return to uniform, according to the Navy's top officer.

It's one of a handful of measures being pushed by Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, to continue the Navy's crackdown on sexual assault in the ranks.

Sailors who have been assaulted can request either an expedited transfer from their duty station or, soon, request a discharge from the service entirely. The concern, however, would be ensuring that those sailors who have been discharged would still have access to resources such as counseling and medical treatment available to sailors on active duty.

"I want to understand how that support transports out to his or her new life, so I don't want it to be this abrupt cliff where they lose all those resources unless there is something else on the other side to pick that up," said Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson, who is proposing new initiatives in the fight against sexual assault.

Richardson said the discharge would be honorable and would allow for victims to reenlist later on down the line if they should so desire.

For victims who want to simply change commands to be separated from their alleged abuser, Richardson said he planned to work with detailers to ensure that they can never be stationed with that person again.

Richardson's plan also calls for placing new counselors e also rolled out a plan to place counselors in the Fleet and Family Support Centers who specialize in sexual assault response. Their jobs will be modeled after the civilian resiliency counselors deployed on the aircraft carriers and at some shore bases. shore-based sailors. These new positions will s is another option that "lowers the threshold for engagement" and boosts reporting, Richardson said.

The service is dumping the phrase, he was planning to dispense with the term "bystander intervention," which has been used in training. Instead, sailors will be expected to intervene on behalf of peers who are misbehaving or putting themselves at risk of being preyed upon. a term meant to imply that if you see someone engaging in destructive behavior, it’s your responsibility to intervene.

"No shipmate is a bystander," Richardson told reporters Jan. 14 at his Pentagon office. "The term bystander, for me, implies a choice or a haven for inaction. … We're going to move beyond this implied pacifism and say, 'Hey, that's your shipmate and you've got an obligation to act.' "

Instead, the new training will be modeled around the phrase, "Step up and step in."

"When we were talking about this with the fleet. You’ve heard that term, ‘see something, say something?’ Well one person put it this way: ‘If you see something wrong, do something right.’ And I like that, it’s proactive."

The service also plans to The Navy will continue and reinvigorate its push to crack down on booze. alcohol abuse, Richardson said.

"We find that there is a very high correlation [between] binge drinking, and other bad behaviors [including] sexual assault and everything else," he said. 

SL ADD The Air Force said it does not have similar policies allowing quicker relocations or discharges for sexual assault victims, but is studying the Navy's changes to see if it wants to emulate them.

About David B. Larter

David B. Larter was the naval warfare reporter for Defense News.

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