Sailors and civilians assigned to Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) attended a two-hour Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Training, April 19 taught by Anne Munch.

Munch, a practicing attorney and sexual assault trainer spoke with the expeditionary Type Command about her experiences and lessons learned prosecuting a variety of sexual assault cases in her home state of Colorado.

Throughout her career Munch has worked with law enforcement agencies, universities and various military services about her mission to change the culture of rape and sexual assault.

"It's about switching our lens of vision," said Munch, who added a large majority of victims actually knew their attacker.

Cmdr. John Leitner, NECC/NECC-Pacific Force Sexual Assault and Prevention Coordinator also arranged for Munch to speak with leadership from other expeditionary commands stationed in the Hampton Roads region.

"The training given by Mrs. Munch provided valuable insight on the victim's perspective and was a wake-up call on the culture shift occurring in the Navy," said Leitner.

Munch added that in our society there is a "rule book" that essentially blames the victim if the violates the unspoken rules.

"This is essentially what we are up against," added Munch. "It's what we say and what we do; it's our words and actions."

Munch encouraged the attendees of the training to examine themselves to ensure they were not participating in victim blaming.

"Vulnerability is meaningless unless someone decides to take advantage of it," said Munch.

This year's Department of Defense and Navy theme is "Protect our people, protects our mission."

NECC is an enduring warfighting force providing sea-to-shore and inland operating environment capabilities across the full range of military operations, which is focused on delivering combat-effective expeditionary forces ready for worldwide operations now and into the future.

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For more news from Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, visit www.navy.mil/.