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St. Cloud State University
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Gulf war vet examines military
By Tsewang Sangmo Lama
Published:
Thursday, February 6, 2003
Media Credit: Adam Masloski
Chante Wolf talks about her experiences in the U.S. Air Force as a woman. She was this week�s Women on Wednesday speaker talking about her journey toward peace.
Students and professors gathered Wednesday to hear Chante Wolf from Veterans for Peace speak about her military experiences in the Gulf War and the general treatment of U.S. women in the military.
Wolf served 12 years in the U.S. Military and joined the Air Force to pursue her interests in photography and traveling.
"The idea of traveling by ships and airplanes attracted me," Wolf said.
What was less attractive to Wolf was the treatment of women in the military.
"The basic discipline in the military is humiliation, intimidation and homophobia, in order to coerce and break the human spirit to turn us into human machines," she said.
"They try to rebuild you as a non-thinking obedient robot."
According to Wolf, the military's structure and attitude is sexist.
Gang rapes, Wolf said, are common.
"Rape is a psychological tool used by the military," she said.
Wolf cited examples of women being systematically raped in Bosnia, Rwanda and other countries.
Young women in the military were subjected to rape and invited as entertainment for the visiting pilots.
"I could hear their cries at night," Wolf said.
Since the Vietnam War, 60 percent of American women who served in military suffered one or more traumas in their life of which the top two were rape and sexual assault in the military.
Wolf related her experience in the Gulf War as a horror beyond her wildest imagination. Her soul straddled a fine line between sanity and insanity.
"The target was civilians," she said.
Wolf recalled the U.S. military bombing of Iraqi hospitals, schools, civilian bunkers and water tanks 24 hours a day for 42 days straight.
But the U.S. military also felt the backlash of uranium battle tactics. The returning troops were contaminated with uranium. Women were contaminated by their husbands and boy friends that were in the troops. New-born babies were contaminated by their parents.
"The same things are happening to Iraqi women." Wolf said.
According to Wolf, 1.5 million Iraqis have died because of the U.S. sanctions. Many Veterans are also suffering from the Gulf War syndrome.
The current U.S. action, Wolf said will lead to "never ending war."
The U.S spends four hundred billion dollars on military. The U.S has 35,000 nuclear warheads. Each of these warheads is 1,000 times the size of the Hiroshima bombing.
The U.S. has changed the stance of self-defense to aggression.
"We are creating our own demise," Wolf said.
Wolf stirred emotion in those who beheld her presentation. Some audience members even left in tears.
"It seems like there are two Americas -- the land of opportunity and freedom and the land of aggression and violence," said Harry Davis, English graduate student. "Wolf's presentation helped me understand the reality of war and how women are treated in inhumane ways."
Senior psychology major Saima Hassan found Wolf's speech applicable to the nation's current situation with said Iraq.
"I wish more people would hear the realities of war and wake up," she said.
