August 23, 2006

It has now been 74 days since Suzanne was taken in handcuffs to jail
and we are still working hard everyday to get her the honorable
discharge she deserves. Suzanne has to be one the bravest people I
know. She is able to come and go from base as she wants to now. She is
getting a new job which she will be able to be more effective in  and
she will be out from under a Sergeant who is humiliating and harassing
her daily. We are relieved and she is glad to be doing something that
is more challenging. The platoon Sergeant that was her initial harasser
in Iraq who now has a no contact (with Suzanne) order has been hanging
out in her barracks the last two days. He does not speak to her but he
looks at her and it it freaking her out. I let her attorney know that
this is unacceptable. He should not be able to come to her barracks.
She comes home on weekends once in a while to see her psychologist and
be with family. It is becoming harder and harder for to go back to the
base. Her depression is going through sharp peaks and valleys which
breaks my heart.
She told me a story the other day that crushed me. When she was
preparing for her re-deployment to Iraq she had to send her personal
belongings over ahead of her to Iraq. I asked where her "baby pillow"
is and she got tears in her eyes. She said she sent it over to Iraq so
she could have it with her over there during the deployment. Kind of a
security blanket. Well, she head from one of the 54th MP company
soldiers that when she went AWOL they took her bags apart and gave
away
all of her belongings and threw the rest away. The soldier was laughing
that she had Suzanne's game boy for the deployment. So, somewhere in
the landfills in Iraq is Suzanne's baby pillow. Somehow that strikes me
as very symbolic. We also found out that the Army went to Suzanne's
apartment off base and confiscated things from her apartment.
We have some huge actions on Suzanne's behalf. The website is alive and
full of new things. I urge people to set Suzanne's website as their
home page until she is free http://suzanneswift.org/. Under link of the
week there is a link to the press conference we had at the Vets for
Peace conference on August 12. There were 5 powerful women veterans
there speaking about their experience and their support for Suzanne.
Please watch the whole thing. It will motivate those who have yet not
done much to do something more. This press conference actually did
create the fire for group of people to start CAMP SUZANNE outside of
Ft. Lewis. Check out the website link to them http://suzanneswift.org/  
There is so much to talk about.
The investigation is complete as far as we know. Colonel Katherine
Miller is the person that we are waiting for to make the decision
whether Suzanne will be discharged or court marshaled. So we wait and
Suzanne's mental health is declining. It feels like they are waiting
for her to break down emotionally and or for her support to go away.
Well, I want to thank you all for not going away. Continue to write to
your elected officials asking why the victims is being treated like a
criminal and that we have to put a stop to military violence.

Really take some time looking at the website. there are resources for
Military Sexual Trauma survivors and lots of actions to help with.

We appreciate you all so much. Please do something every day to bring
peace into our world.

Sara