RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas –
Before a standing-room-only audience at 9:30 a.m. in the youth center gym Wednesday morning, Col. Jacqueline Van Ovost, 12th Flying Training Wing commander, kicked off this year's annual Sexual Assault Awareness training.
Before signing a proclamation declaring April to be observed as "Sexual Assault Awareness Month," the colonel said the Air Force was making significant strides in prevention, reporting, treatment and awareness of sexual assaults.
"Our goal is to eliminate sexual assaults," the colonel added, "and to ensure that everyone in the Air Force community is treated with dignity and respect."
After the colonel signed the proclamation, the packed gymnasium audience watched and clapped spontaneously during a five-minute show entitled "My Strength is for Defending" by two female aerial performers who climbed, twisted, and slid down long, rope-like cloths suspended from the gym's ceiling.
Then, Rod Reder, vice-president of the Tampa, Fla.-based National Institute of Crime Prevention, spoke on date rape drugs and how they facilitate sexual assaults.
Whilre Mr. Reder presented information about drugs like Rohypnol and GHB and their physiological effects on humans, his main emphasis highlighted alcohol as the "drug" predominantly used in commission of sexual assaults. He pointed to statistics thaty showed alcohol usage in half of all reported violent crimes.
"Society often excuses male drinking but blames women who are sexually assaulted after they were drinking," Mr. Reder said, adding later that an incapacitated person does not forfeit her rights.
Mr. Reder said Rohypnol is 10 times as potent as Valium and creates a state of anterograde amnesia, where a user forgets what happened immediately for some time before and after the drug is ingested. Similar gaps in memory have also been reported, he said, from sexual assault victims who were drugged with GHB. These drug-induced memory lapses are key in hindering investigations of sexual assault cases.
To prevent being incapacitated with date-rape drugs, Mr. Reder said it was important to plan for safety before visiting places where alcohol is served and where drinks could be "spiked."
"It's important to travel in groups," Mr. Reder said, "and the ability to sense danger is imperative for the potential victim."