The crew of the guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG 58) hosted several events highlighting April as the Navy's Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month (SAAPM), raising awareness and educating Sailors about the effects of sexual assault and prevention methods.

The goal of SAAPM was to provide creative opportunities for the crew to interact and engage in conversations about how to prevent sexual assault. Led by the Philippine Sea Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) team, the month featured various events which focused efforts on putting an end to sexual violence and providing avenues for the crew to show their support for victims of sexual crimes.

"Sexually assaulting another shipmate defies everything we stand for as Sailors," said Chief Personnel Specialist Dwayne James, Philippine Sea Command SAPR Coordinator. "In order to have a highly trained and effective combat team to carry out our country's mission, there must be trust amongst each other; sexually assaulting a shipmate violates that trust in the most egregious way."

The SAPR team bolstered the sense of trust amongst the crew by providing education on both the impacts of sexual assault and its prevalence in our society. "We wanted to focus on demonstrations that show how anyone can step in when they see something happening," said Yeoman First Class Arkeshia Holmes, one of Philippine Seas victim advocates. "It is all about intervention."

During a cake cutting ceremony on the mess decks, Capt. John Schmidt, commanding officer of Philippine Sea, addressed the crew and reiterated the importance of intervention in preventing sexual violence. "If small boats were to attack one of the ships in our strike group, we would rush to their defense and protect them," said Capt. Schmidt. "Sexual assault is no different; when someone is attempting to harm one of our shipmates, it is our duty to protect each other."

To visually illustrate the personal consequences of sexual violence, members of the crew who know someone or have been personally been affected by sexual assault were invited to wear colored shirts underneath their flame resistant variant (FRV) coveralls. They were also given the opportunity to write their relationship to the victim on a teal ribbon and hang it up on the "Pledge Wall" outside the ship's learning resource center.

"We had the crew sign a pledge to stand together and support survivors and those who are scared to come forward so that they know we are here for them," said Holmes. "This behavior must be stopped and we all will do our part to ensure it does not happen to another friend, loved one, family member or anyone else."

The crew demonstrated their collective resolve to ending sexual violence and supporting survivors by posing for an all-hands SAPR ribbon photo on the flight deck. "Philippine Sea is saluting the survivors of sexual assault and on the front lines doing our part to stomp it out," said James. "Enough is enough!"

Despite the success of having the crew actively engaged in SAAPM, the Philippine Sea SAPR team was not satisfied as the month came to a close. "Education and awareness do not stop at the end of the month," said Operations Specialist 2nd Class Michelle Miller, SAPR victim advocate. "Instead we are building upon the awareness we generated during SAAPM and plan to continue these discussions about how we can help survivors and finally put an end to sexual violence."

Philippine Sea is deployed with the George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group in support of maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations.

For more information, visit http://www.navy.mil, http://www.facebook.com/usnavy, or http://www.twitter.com/usnavy.

For more news from USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), visit www.navy.mil/.