 So can you tell me your name and your rank? Yes, my name is Christina Busch Sargent and my unit is Yusaki-E. And what is Yusaki-E? It's basically the facility over on Coleman, the unit over on Coleman, where we handle the prison. Okay, and what does it stand for? United States Correctional Association in Europe. United States Correctional Association in Europe? United States Army Correctional Association in Europe. Okay, good. So what happened? I mean, why are we here talking today? We're talking today because a fellow NCO told someone up about Yusara during the Sharp Month about something that happened at the MP Ball, where I intervened, where a soldier was persistently harassing a young lady there that was sitting by herself. And she was a German, so she couldn't speak very much English. And she had kept telling him no, that she didn't want to dance with him. And he just kept telling her, yeah, you do, yeah, you do, come dance with me, you know, you want to. And I don't think it went on for maybe three or four minutes. And I was like, okay, this is enough. So I went over there and I was like, hey, you need to leave her alone. She's already told you no. From what I saw, she's told you no several times. She keeps trying to tell you no other ways, like she's waiting for her date or she's doing something, and you just won't take it. I was like, you're borderline sexual harassment right now. And he just kind of looked at me and I didn't know his rank or who he was. And I was like, do you need to move on? Let's go somewhere else. I know you're a little drunk. You need to just walk away, leave it alone. And after he just kind of stood there and stared at me for a few minutes, he finally got the clue and walked away. And she stood up and she tried to thank me as much as she could speak. And that's when Sergeant Langford came over and she was translating for us and she was telling me that she had been telling the guy for a good five minutes to go away. That wasn't his first attempt. He went over there more than once and he just won't leave her alone. And so I felt happy to help, but I didn't know that it was that big of a deal. I just went over there because he looked like he was harassing her. What prompted you to intervene? I mean, that takes a certain amount of courage, I guess you'd say. Most people don't intervene. Because when you look at something like that and you just kind of turn your back, you're almost like a co-conspirator. You are letting the incident happen. So if I was to go home and the next day I heard it on the news or I read the newspaper or something happened and I saw that soldier come to the facility and that's the reason why, because he was there for sexual harassment or sexual assault, I would feel guilty because I sat there and I watched it happen. I didn't do anything about it. And I think that's what's wrong with a lot of the cases nowadays is that there's a lot of people that could stop it are seeing something happen and they could have prevented it, but they don't because they're like, no, no, there are adults they can take care of themselves. I don't want to get involved. They don't want to get into confrontation. When you put the uniform on, it's off to an on-duty. You hold a certain responsibility to take care of everyone, to take care of your fellow brothers and sisters in uniform, to take care of your family, to take care of the people that you vow to protect. So if I'm just going to go, okay, well, she's just another person. I mean, she can take care of herself. I'm just as guilty as that person. Now, how long have you been in the in the army? I've been in a little over six years. And have you ever had a situation that you felt was harassment or assault? Yes. Yes. A while back in my younger years, one of my sister's boyfriends came on and it was it was kind of horrible. And I didn't tell nobody because it felt like it was my fault. And I just didn't feel like, like if I told someone, no one understand that it wasn't my fault, that I didn't ask for it. I didn't want it. Like, because, you know, you dress a certain way. You act a certain way. Everyone says that you want it. You asked for it. And I felt like maybe I fell into that category. Maybe I fell. Maybe I did something to warrant his actions. Maybe I did something that caused it. And I don't think anyone should feel that way. So I'm not going to sit back and let it happen. And I don't think anybody should because, like, if that was their children and everyone should look at each other, not exactly as their children, but as a family member, as a brother, sister, as a child, as a parent, you know, if that was happening to someone they loved, what would they do? Would they turn their backs still and walk away? Or would they actually do something? Yeah. I mean, that's a very good point. As I was telling you earlier, you know, my, I got two daughters and I was trying to encourage them to join the military. But after I watched this video over on Vizba and I was like, man, if it's that bad, would I really have wanted them to come into my military? Because I don't feel that sexual assault or, or harassment, you know, and it's a, it's a, it's a tough thing, you know, and it's a, it's a culture too. I mean, there's some, there's some cultural aspects to this. I mean, what do you think is the military's culture in regards to the male and female, like relationships? Well, I think that, you know, for the longest time it was a men's world. Women just visited or we were there for nursing or taking care of the soldiers. But when they actually let women in, it was kind of a black, white. It wasn't really, you know, this was what's going to happen. Men didn't really kind of want the females here and females didn't really know how to act. And so, I mean, we've come a long way and to say that, you know, we're just going to keep turning our backs to this and that, you know, each gender, it's just gender specific. I know it's not just females that get harassed, men to get harassed too, but a lot less men come forward because they don't want to look like, you know, being bullied or they don't want to look like girls or, you know, they don't want to lose that sense of ego or sense of man that they have to say that they were sexually harassed by someone, especially if it was another dude that did it. Now, you were telling me that in the ball there was actually a second incident. Yes. So, we're talking about a military MP ball. Yes. With two different incidences. Yes. Do you think alcohol had anything to do with it? Oh, I think alcohol had a lot to do with it. So, you think that alcohol maybe in general has a lot to do with this kind of behavior? I think alcohol is a liquid encouragement to do things that you wouldn't normally do. I heard a phrase one year. I don't know where I heard it from, but it's always been my favorite phrase. Sober man's thoughts is a drunk man's talk. Like, if you think it when you're sober, you're definitely going to act it out when you're drunk. So, if you think that you could do something like that when you're sober and you get drunk, you just, everything goes out the window. Why did you feel the need to step in? Because at the time when I was sitting there and there was no one else coming around, I didn't know, I didn't know if she was actually waiting for somebody else or if she was there by herself or what, but it didn't seem like anybody else was going to help her. And if it was me, I would want someone to come over and help me. I wouldn't want to sit there for endless amount of time for this dude harassing me. I mean, if it was my daughter or my son and someone did that, I would want someone to step in and help them and not sit there and just feel like, all right, well, this is awkward. I'm not really going to do anything, but I'm just going to act like it's not happening. Do you think it's a responsibility of leadership or, I mean, you're an NCO. Is it NCO's responsibilities? Is it leaders' responsibilities? Is it everyone's responsibilities? I mean, whose responsibility is it to step in and to help out? I think it's everybody's responsibility. It's human beings, not as soldiers alone, but as human beings, if you see someone getting hurt or if you see someone getting harassed or anything that doesn't look right, then you should do something about it.