NBSD Holds Emotional SAAPM Program

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- Naval Base San Diego (NBSD) hosted an emotional program recognizing Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month (SAAPM) for Sailors and civilians at the base theater Apr. 10.

NBSD command's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response coordinator, Morale, Welfare and Recreation and Fleet and Family Support Center (FFSC) partnered to create a visual and unique program that played realistic videos, spoken statements from date rapists, testimonials from victims and hung clothing with blunt messages fighting sexual assault around the theater.

The program began with a Victim Advocate (VA) from USS Boxer singing the Christina Aguilera song "You are beautiful," followed by a stern statement from Cmdr. Patricia Witherspoon, Naval Base San Diego's Executive Officer. "Sexual Assault is a crime. Period. It has no place in the United States military, and certainly not on Naval Base San Diego."

During the event, VAs were identified and available for anyone who might want to reach out, the Collation of Sailors against Destructive Decisions shared true stories and issued a call to action for Sailors to be active bystanders, Region Legal Service Office Southwest spoke about what constitutes a sex crime and the true meaning of consent, and the NBSD Sexual Assault Response Coordinators quizzed the crowd on sexual assault. Several videos were also shown, one being a police rape sensitivity video discussing male-on-male sexual assault.

"This [event] was an honest reflection, an honest opportunity, an honest exchange of dialogue. We wanted to show all sides; including focusing on the attitude of a perpetrator," said Kat Wager, NBSD FFSC Sexual Assault Response Coordinator. "It took a lot of courage for all involved, it took courage for people to be there and listen to some of these difficult confessions and videos. It took courage for people to want to ask questions and to give audience feedback and I think it took courage for Naval Base San Diego to put on something new and honest."

This program was the first of its kind for NBSD and participant Quartermaster 3rd Class William Nobriga was happy to see the program incorporated new material. "The SAAM event was very informative and the videos were rough, but unquestionably necessary. In the five years I've been in the Navy, I've been to at least 15 of these trainings and I found this one to be the most impactful due to do addressing that sexual assault isn't necessarily male-on-female. The video where the assault was male-on-male was something I never saw before."

Throughout the month of April, NBSD FFSC has educated personnel about sexual assault prevention through resources tables, clothesline projects, marquee messages, banners, social media postings and general military training.

Sexual Assault Prevention and Response is an important element of the readiness area of the 21st Century Sailor and Marine initiative which consolidates a set of objectives and policies, new and existing, to maximize Sailor and Marine personal readiness, build resiliency and hone the most combat-effective force in the history of the Navy and Marine Corps. The Department of the Navy is working to aggressively to prevent sexual assaults, to support sexual assault victims, and to hold offenders accountable.

Help raise awareness by joining the conversation on social media using #SexualAssault and #SAAPM.

For more information about the prevention of sexual assault, visit http://www.sapr.navy.mil.

For more news from Naval Base San Diego, visit www.navy.mil/local/NBSD/.