DATE: Sunday, September 14, 1997            TAG: 9709130268

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A30  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE 

DATELINE: COLUMBIA, S.C.                    LENGTH:  109 lines

MORE MALE VETS SEEKING TREATMENT FOR SEXUAL ABUSE WOMEN'S STORIES EMBOLDENED THEM, COUNSELORS THINK.

Before she left her Veterans Affairs job here for one in Seattle, Karyl Drake noticed an unusual change in the kinds of veterans she treated for sexual abuse.

A growing number of them were men.

Drake, a ``sexual trauma'' counselor, suspects the change is largely the result of recent sex scandals in the military. Often unwilling to report rape and sexual assault in any setting, men were emboldened after many women came forward to tell their stories, she thought.

Drake's colleagues around the country cite different reasons for the increase, but have nonetheless been struck by the stories they've heard from long-silent male veterans.

This year, men make up more than 20 percent of all veterans being counseled for rape, sexual assault and harassment, Department of Veterans Affairs statistics show.

That percentage of male victims is significantly higher than in the civilian world, but comparisons can be misleading, VA officials caution. While men make up less than half of all U.S. citizens, they are an overwhelming majority of military veterans, and thus likely to skew statistics.

This year, more than 800 men have received sexual trauma counseling at the VA's 205 outreach clinics. Men make up 22 percent of all those seeking treatment for sexual trauma this year, up from 13 percent three years ago.

``This is much harder for men. These people are often far more traumatized than the women,'' says Drake, who treated three male veterans in the past year who told stories of being raped.

VA counselors say many of the offenses they've heard about were committed decades ago, during the Vietnam era and in the years after the war, when the military was plagued by drug abuse and criminals in the ranks. As with many women veterans who say they were sexually abused while in uniform, most men never reported the attacks to their commanders although in some cases they were severely beaten.

Maria Crane, team leader at the St. Petersburg, Fla., Vet Center, said her office has counseled six male veterans this year. Most were Vietnam-era; all told of being raped by other men.

``Sexual assault with males has always existed, but now men are more willing to come forward for treatment,'' explains Crane, a clinical psychologist whose office has counseled 100 women for sexual abuse since 1993.

``Veterans are starting to see there are other people in the field who will provide specialized treatment. What happened in the past was, nobody asked them,'' she said.

Crane and other VA counselors say a number of factors have led more men to report rape and sexual assault. Among them are better training for counselors, the recent media coverage of sexual misconduct cases and a growing awareness that women aren't the only victims of sex crimes.

``For men, particularly if it's a same-sex rape, there are sexual identity issues that are hard to talk about,'' says Susan Angell, a Vet Center regional manager in California.

In the masculine military culture, Angell and others say, the notion of rape is especially difficult to deal with.

``It brings up the issue, `Gee, you're a man and why weren't you able to protect yourself?' '' she said.

The Department of Veterans Affairs established the sexual trauma counseling program in 1993, in response to large numbers of women who were beginning to report sexual abuse to psychologists and hospital social workers.

Initially, the program was geared to women, and in four years more than 5,000 women veterans have been counseled for rape, assault and harassment at VA outreach sites, known as Vet Centers.

In most cases, counselors say, the women suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a malady that for years was associated with combat soldiers and called ``shell shock.'' The VA began to focus on male victims shortly after the program began, when it became apparent that men who'd been treated for PTSD were in a few cases reporting sexual abuse.

The increases have been steady, from 321 men in fiscal year 1994, to 470 in 1995 and 752 in 1996.

And while men now make up more than one-fifth of all sexual trauma patients, those reporting sexual abuse are still a small portion - 1 percent of all men in Vet Center counseling programs.

Their reluctance to get treatment, some counselors say, has caused profound problems, from depression to alcoholism and drug abuse.

The male patients she's seen, Crane says, ``are in bad shape.''

``By the time they come to us, with an assault that occurred 25-30 years ago, they've never told anybody, never adjusted.''

In many cases, trauma counselors say, the social stigma is so great that it has taken years for men to talk about being raped or assaulted. .

Marvin Abney, a VA psychologist in San Antonio, Texas, has counseled four male rape victims recently.

``It's just so much against that whole masculine identity - it's almost like a homosexual phobia. If you've been raped, the feeling is it's almost like you're not a man anymore,'' said Abney, a former Air Force officer.

The VA's Drake counseled one Vietnam veteran who told of being attacked after trying to stop a gang of soldiers from assaulting a Vietnamese girl. The soldiers turned on him instead, she said, breaking his jaw before raping him. The soldier, who was flown out of the combat zone for medical treatment, was advised by his commander not to report the incident.

For the last few years, Crane said, VA counselors have been taught that they need to ask both male and female veterans if they've been sexually abused. She said some counselors are still uncomfortable talking to men about sexual trauma, and male victims may repeatedly deny being raped before acknowledging the incident occurred.

Despite the negative publicity that sexual abuse has brought to the military lately, Crane and many of her colleagues believe the rise in male reporting is a positive development.

``This is not a bad news thing,'' says Connie Best, a Naval Reservist in Charleston and authority on rape and sexual abuse.

``This says you don't have to feel like a Martian anymore - somebody must be saying you can get help.'' KEYWORDS: SEXUAL HARASSMENT U.S. MILITARY

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