Retired Colonel Scott Jensen fought in Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan during his 27 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. He also fought misogyny.
Jensen was selected to lead the Marines’ sexual assault prevention and response efforts and he worked to solve the problem of sexual violence against women from within his branch of the military. But, he couldn’t. He explains, in an interview with The Washington Post:
“Quite frankly, it was exactly the ‘this is too hard of a challenge to solve’ that I think stalled it,” Jensen said. “I do not believe that it was too hard to solve, but I do believe that it would have taken a lot more aggressive activity from a collaborative group of leaders and bureaucratic sections to come together looking for new solutions — and that’s what failed in the Marines United campaign.”
Now Jensen is taking on the Pentagon from the outside, as the new CEO of a nonprofit devoted to stopping sexual assault and harassment in the military. We ask him what prevents us from protecting all those who protect us.
GUESTS
Col. Scott Jensen, CEO, Protect Our Defenders
Kate Hendricks Thomas, Assistant Professor of Public Health; Charleston Southern University; Former Marine Corps officer
Susan Burke, Attorney at Law Offices of Susan L. Burke; representing military sexual assault survivors
Virginia Messick, Former Air Force recruit
For more, visit https://the1a.org.
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Copyright 2018 WAMU 88.5
