Woman Wins Emotional War With Military Will Stay In Service, But Says Justice Denied

After 10 months of fighting, Pfc. Shannon Emery won her biggest battle yet - against the U.S. Army.

Military authorities last month dropped attempts to kick the Spokane woman out of the Army because, officials claimed, she was gay.

That came after the U.S. Army Inspector General’s office determined that Emery’s commanders violated the military’s controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy about homosexuality.

Emery, a Shadle Park High School graduate who says she isn’t gay, was stationed in Korea. The 23-year-old is now headed to Fort Carson, Colo., for duty as a military police officer.

“The sad thing about it is it wasn’t really justice,” said Emery, who arrived in Spokane July 27 for a brief stop. “It was politics that got me out.”

Emery’s family and the Service Members Defense League of Washington, D.C., say they pressed the fight with Congress, top Army officers and the White House. They’ve got stacks of paper to prove it.

Despite the pressure, the Army says Emery’s own command in Korea decided to stop the discharge process. The Army gave no reason.

“The chain of command relooked the case and terminated action on their own, which means no one pressured them to change their mind,” said Maj. LeAnn Swieczkowski, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon.

The military adopted the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy about 1-1/2 years ago. It says commanders are not supposed to investigate a soldier’s sexual orientation. Soldiers are supposed to be discharged only if they display a propensity to engage in homosexual acts.

Emery maintained the charges were made in retaliation for her complaints of sexual harassment against two servicemen.

Her supporters said she gave the Army no reason to snoop around in her personal life. They called the charges against Emery and others in her company a witch hunt.

“The issue here is not gay rights,” said Michelle Benecke, a co-director of the Service Members Defense League, which defends soldiers targeted by the military’s gay policy. “In large part, it’s not even sexual harassment. It’s about fairness. It’s about leadership. It’s about a command that’s out of control.”

The Army Inspector General’s office in Washington, D.C., investigated the case and determined that Emery’s command did not retaliate against Emery for her sexual harassment complaint.

But the IG investigation found “that the inquiry into allegations of misconduct by Pfc. Emery and others was excessively broad and violated DOD guidelines on the conduct of inquiries into homosexual conduct.”

The inquiry and the rumors about Emery’s sexuality started in early October, two weeks after Emery complained she and other women were sexually harassed.

Emery and her roommate were the only women in one of two platoon residential wings at Camp Carroll, a base about five hours south of Seoul.

On Sept. 16, a male soldier grabbed Emery as she held a videotaped movie that she planned to watch, Emery said. He asked her to make a pornographic movie and have sex. Emery said she kneed him in the groin, and another soldier pulled him away.

Her roommate was grabbed by another male soldier that same night.

Emery complained, and the two men were transferred to another platoon - standard practice in dealing with sexual harassment charges, the Army said.

Two weeks after she complained, Emery learned she and three other women in her company were being investigated for indecent acts and being gay.

The indecent acts charges stemmed from two witnesses who signed contradictory statements. One statement was later withdrawn.

“There was no evidence,” Emery said. “What I don’t like is, they could kick out anyone in the military by saying she was gay. All you have to do is start enough rumors. Most people will take the discharge.”

The three other women in her platoon were investigated at the same time. One admitted she was gay and was discharged from the Army. The two other women were investigated but not charged.

All were asked to name women in the company who were lesbians.

Last fall, Emery faced a general court-martial for sodomy and sexual misconduct, punishable by 10 years in prison. The court-martial was dropped to an administrative discharge for homosexuality.

Emery chose to fight it. She wanted to stay in the Army and use the GI Bill for school. She wants to become a civilian police officer.

On July 18 - eight days before her scheduled discharge hearing - Emery was handed a slip of paper containing a 30-word sentence withdrawing the charges.

“I thought, ‘10 months for this?”’ Emery said. “For one paragraph? I thought, ‘This is great. No apology, no nothing.”’

The battle was costly, both emotionally and financially.

Emery started in Korea as a team leader, training two other soldiers in a Humvee military vehicle.

When she was flagged for the charges, the Army removed her from the field, took away her gun and passed her over twice for promotion. Emery developed what is most likely an ulcer, untreated in Korea.

The fight cost thousands of dollars and dozens of hours. Emery spent $4,000 on telephone bills and Federal Express charges. Her family spent almost $6,000 on long-distance bills and faxes.

Her mother, Debbie Emery, spent at least 15 hours a week working for her daughter.

“I felt the Army would be good experience, and they would take care of her,” Debbie Emery said. “They didn’t. Instead, they harassed her, intimidated her, and tried to coerce her into making statements about herself that weren’t true.”

Benecke said she worked more on Emery’s case than on any other of the more than 530 soldiers that the organization has defended.

“I personally worked on this case every day for six months,” Benecke said. “If this organization billed its hours like a private law firm, I’d be a rich woman. If we hadn’t gotten involved, she would have been railroaded out of Korea and out of the Army. That’s crystal clear.”

Now, heading to Fort Carson, Emery plans to finish the remaining three years of her five-year tour of duty.

“No one thought I would go as far as I did,” she said. “They thought I’d give up. They were wrong.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo