Army Recruit Tells Of Harassment, Threats

An 18-year-old Army recruit has gone public with her allegation that a drill sergeant sexually harassed her and threatened to cut her throat if she told anyone about it.

Jessica Bleckley, 18, said she and other women were sexually abused in recent months at the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground, the Maryland base where soldiers have been accused of rape, sexual harassment and other misconduct involving more than a dozen women recruits.

Bleckley, a South Carolina native, said the trouble started in May, after she rejected the advances of a married drill instructor. He threatened to kill her if she revealed the unwanted advances, she said.

“He became extremely obsessive and jealous,” she said Wednesday in the Anderson Independent Mail. “He said he would kill me.” The instructor made suggestive remarks, sent her love letters and called her, she said.

In an ABC News interview that aired Thursday evening, Bleckley described a graphic threat: “If I told anybody, that he would cut my throat, that he knew ways of killing people where no one would find out who did it.”

She said about nine other higher-ranking soldiers - mostly drill sergeants - also made unwanted advances toward her.

After fellow soldiers convinced her to file harassment charges, she became so despondent that the Army placed her on suicide watch, she said.

The paper and the network didn’t publicly identify the men Bleckley has accused of harassing her.

The most serious charges at Aberdeen Proving Ground involve drill Sgt. Delmar Simpson, who is charged with raping three recruits and threatening to kill or injure the women if they told.

The Army has filed criminal charges against two drill sergeants and a captain and administrative charges against two trainers at the base in Aberdeen. Fifteen other instructors have been placed on administrative duty.