Learning From the Bystander Intervention Pilot Program

From Naval Education and Training Command Public Affairs

ORLANDO, Fla. (NNS) -- The results of a Navy program aimed at eliminating violence against women were briefed at the Department of the Navy Sexual Assault and Prevention Response Summit held in Orlando, Fla., May 4.

Conducted over the past year, the Bystander Intervention Pilot Program was designed to determine the viability of implementing a bystander intervention training program for the Navy and Marine Corps.

"Bystander intervention approaches teach our service members to take action when risky peer behavior is observed," stated Capt. Chuck Hollingsworth, commanding officer of the Center for Personal and Professional Development in Norfolk, Va., which coordinated the contract for the training and collected survey data used to assess its effectiveness. "It's appropriate for all audiences, because while most Sailors don't perpetrate the illegal behavior, all are in a position to stop it."

Using the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) program, the Navy selected 25 commands to participate in the pilot. MVP is a leadership program focused on gender violence prevention and education and was established in 1993 as a multi-racial, mixed-gender training program geared toward high school and college-age students. The program also focuses on professional athletes in the fight against all forms of violence against women. MVP uses bystander intervention as a strategy to prevent sexual violence and has been implemented broadly throughout the country including secondary schools, college athletics, sororities and fraternities, youth service providers, and professional sports associations. Surveys were conducted before and after the MVP training to determine if Sailors realized a change in attitude toward intervention in sexual assault related incidents.

"The survey data indicated a significant attitude change for our junior Sailors (E-4 and below)," said Hollingsworth. "More importantly for our Navy, however, the survey respondents reported 31 interventions that took place because of the training. These are incidents that were avoided because Sailors took care of Sailors."

In the MVP model for training delivery, Sailors who were designated as command trainers received two days of intense MVP training, including a "teach-back" session, and then returned to deliver the peer-to-peer training to their units. Class participants receive training in areas including gender relations, abuses of power and discussions of social norms, all centered on the principle of supporting mutual dignity and respect.

"Bystander intervention is clearly a great fit for the Navy culture," said CPPD Command Master Chief (SW/AW) Stephan Fontenot. "It is all about Sailors taking care of Sailors, and these skills can be used not only to prevent sexual assault, but for numerous other situations where our Sailors find themselves needing to watch each others' backs.

Bystander intervention training is one piece of a larger strategy addressing changes in attitudes and behaviors about sexual assault. Based on the results of the pilot, Navy leadership is currently assessing the best way to provide bystander intervention skills throughout the Navy.

"We've all taken an oath to 'support and defend'," Hollingsworth concluded. "It's time we started applying that oath to our own force."

Apolitical Military Fundamental to Democracy, Chairman Says

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

Feb. 23, 2008 - The idea that the military is an apolitical organization is fundamental to democracy, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen told students at the Australian Defense College here yesterday. During a question and answer session, one of the students asked the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff how he "manages the expectations of politicians."

The chairman quickly told the students that it is not a process of managing expectations, but of education.

The basics of national security transcend party, he said. In December, Australia changed administrations. But the support for the military remained strong, he said, and the transition was seamless.

"I credit the military leadership with a significant part of that," he said.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff's job is to provide his "best military advice" to the president, defense secretary, National Security Council and Homeland Security Council.

Best military advice is not contingent on party, he said, and he, of course, will carry out the lawful orders of the president no matter what party he or she is from.

"Clearly one of my goals is to educate ... anybody who is in a position of responsibility politically and provide my best advice to every one of them about from the military's perspective and what we should be doing, where we should be investing, where we should be operating," he said.

"Early engagement" with politicians is important, the chairman said. He does not want to first speak with a political leader when there is a crisis. "Sometimes that happens, just because there are a lot of crises," he said.

Speaking constantly with political leaders builds trust and confidence, Mullen said.

"I would put it in terms of trying to create an understanding of the reality of the military and security environment that we are operating in, the capabilities that we bring, the relationships that we have and what is the best way to apply them to the challenges that we have," he said.

Information on family violence assisted in the publication on this article.

Face of Defense: Wounded in Iraq, National Guardsman Wants to Return

By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service

Feb. 21, 2008 - For an Arkansas Army National Guardsman, the war in Iraq came to an abrupt end in the alley of a Baghdad neighborhood on June 13, 2004. Then-Sgt. Kevin Pannell was on a routine foot patrol with his unit in Sadr City, a Baghdad neighborhood, when insurgents lobbed two hand grenades at the group. The grenades landed near him and exploded, knocking him off his feet and mangling both of his legs.

"I was never knocked out, so my medic wouldn't let me go to sleep -- because when you go to sleep, shock sets in," Pannell said.

That changed when he arrived at the U.S. military hospital in Baghdad, however. The doctors there put him into a medically induced coma.

"It's kind of surreal, because you don't remember that. It doesn't seem like it really happened," he said. "To me, I went to sleep in Baghdad and woke up two minutes later."

In fact, it was eight days before Pannell awoke at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here to find doctors had amputated his right leg below the knee and his left leg above the knee.

Two prosthetic legs and plenty of physical therapy have Pannell up and walking again, and despite all he's been through, he wants to return to the country where his life was turned upside-down.

Pannell won't return as a soldier; he's been medically retired. And he's too pragmatic to think he could even the score with the insurgents whose grenades shattered his body.

"It's so hard to get those guys. They skip over two streets, change their shirts, and they're not who they were," he said. "Unless you've been studying this guy on the 'black list,' you're not going to recognize him on the street."

It's a sense of duty to the deployed men and women that is nagging at him to go back. He said he wants them to know that just because a servicemember is injured doesn't mean he forgets about his buddies who are still patrolling the streets of Iraq.

"I think it would be vitally important for those dudes to realize that once we get hurt, we don't forget about them," Pannell said. "That's something a lot of people can't understand, but it's impossible. It's impossible to forget your guys."

Pannell said he thinks the members of his unit who didn't get hurt had it much worse than he did. It's not that he would ever wish on his buddies what he's been through, but once he began to recover, he said, he could get on with his life.

"Once I got hit, I was safe. I was back in the States, (and) the war was over for me," he said. "They (were) going out those gates every day, not knowing if they're going to come back or not. That's a hell of a thing to bear, you know?"

While his wife, Danielle, supports his desire to go back, she has a slightly different take on why he wants to make the trip.

"He went into Iraq a scared little kid and came out the same way because he never really got to say goodbye, never got to have closure (in that part) of his life. When he left, he was unconscious," she said in a previous American Forces Press Service interview. "He wants to go back and say, 'Look, I'm here. You didn't defeat me.'"

Maybe he'll get his chance. "If anybody wants me to tag along on a (United Service Organizations) trip, I'm down," he said. "Drew Carey goes over like every six months; I can hop on with him."

Information and article prepared with the assistance of family violence readings.