Looming Darkness: The Life of a MST/PTSD Survivor

I'm a female survivor of Military Sexual Trauma with PTSD. This is the story of what happened to me, at the age of 18, in the United States Coast Guard in 1979 and what followed in my life as a result.

2021 statistics for Military Sexual Trauma (MST) happens to 1 in 3 females and 1 in 50 men. I wonder what the rate was back in 1970’s and 1980’s, if the real truth was known.

I believe, in 1979 that, women stood about the same chance of being sexual harassed by their male counterparts, as a snowball in hell has of not melting!

I believe, we all reach a point in life, where we ask ourselves “how did I get here?”

We analyze past events, trying to find the one event, that has forever changed your path in life.

My pivotal moment in time came, when I joined the U.S. Coast Guard, during my training in Cape May, NJ.

I was told by my recruiter, that it was the first year the Coast Guard, started co-ed training the males and females together. That made the women training that year, groundbreakers, so others may follow. I just pray that none went, where I ended up.