NMPS - Days Two and Three

Day Two of NMPS was short and frustrating. I had to show up earlier than most (0600) for a pregnancy test (a simple blood draw that could have been done the day before), and attend another brief by the chaplain, only this time it was supposed to be about dealing with combat stress. I was prayed at again; it's so inappropriate to have prayers in a mandatory group setting like that. Other than that, I couldn't get medically cleared until they received the results of my pregnancy test, and I had everything else done, so I was done for the day. There was no reason I couldn't have done the pregnancy test the day before so that the results were ready on Day Two, but that didn't happen, so I was done for the day by about 0830. The upside is that my mom was still in town, so I got to spend the whole day with her, which was awesome. We just hung out, shopped at the NEX, got our nails done, got a nice bottle of wine, pizza, and watched a movie. This morning (Day Three) mom got up with me while I got ready and dropped me off at the NMPS building. I thought I would have lost it (I have a tendency to get emotional when it comes to my mom... not exactly rare), but we both held it together and kept a positive attitude.

Day Three of NMPS was infinitely more exciting and productive than Day Two. I'm not pregnant (yay!), got medically cleared, updated my CAC card, received my dog tags, got fit for and received my gas mask, got a power of attorney, and attended three briefs. I was reluctant to attend the two afternoon briefs (Navy and Marine-Corps Relief Society and Fleet and Family Support), but they were actually somewhat entertaining at least, and if not educational, they reminded me of some things that I wanted to get done before leaving. The morning brief by the SAVI (now the SARP) was another story. It's a cliche, but the "victim advocate" who gave the brief presented a bunch of misinformation from her completely biased perspective. The problem with some of these people (not all, but a lot of them) and their misinformation is that it leads to the following situation: SAVI tells young sailors that "if a girl is drunk, she can't consent." The SAVI meant that if a girl is so drunk that she is incapacitated - i.e., unable to consent, then it is rape (even then not necessarily; if the guy reasonably believed she was able to consent, it's not rape). What happens though is this: young sailor gets drunk (not incapacitated - just drunk) and has sex. Next morning, regretting her indiscretion, she tells her friend (another sailor who had been in the SAVI's brief) that she was drunk and had sex, "but didn't really want to." Her friend, because of the training from SAVI and her instinctual protectiveness, tells her: "you were raped!" The girl then internalizes that and begins to believe that she was actually raped. This happens time and time again - especially in the military where the incentives are different than in the civilian world. From fraternization, underage drinking, to adultery, etc., (not to mention the biggie: plain old buyer's remorse) there are a multitude of reasons why a sailor would be more susceptible to believe they were raped in this situation - it's most likely not even a conscious process. The problem, however, is that this misinformation leads to many of these false accusations (however well-intended or sincerely held the beliefs are), and the more false accusations there are, the harder it is for actual victims to get help and to get justice. Argghh... I needed to get that out - I was about to rip my hair out during the brief itself.

Tomorrow we get our uniforms... is it totally lame that I'm excited?