I Signed The Statement

I don’t know why it’s like this. Yesterday morning as I was mentally “writing’ this post, I saw on the news a story about a stalker that got a light sentence and they interviewed the victim and she was stating how people commented how it was her fault, she must have lead him on, etc. She went on to say that people’s reaction towards her was like being victimized again.


Why is it like that? I don’t know but such was the case with me and the Sergeant Major.

Sergeant Major had someone type up a statement that was completely contrary to what really happened. He called me out of class to come to his office to sign the statement.

Oh, I guess I failed to mention that when this first happened, before CSM even got involved, my instructor had me write out a statement of what happened.

I get to the Sergeant Major’s office and he said something like, “No need to read it over, it’s exactly like we talked about. Here you go *hands me paper* just sign it and this will all be over with. You’re doing the right thing, you know. This really wasn’t a big deal and if that Sergeant’s wife finds out about it she’ll probably think it was more than it really was, you know? You really don’t want to cause all that trouble, do you? So here you go, just sign right here. . “

I picked up the paper and started reading it. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Sergeant Major fidgeting in his chair. The statement was a complete lie and distortion of the facts. He covered all bases too –at the end it said something like, “This is a complete recollection of the events as they happened and this statement supersedes any other statements made by me.” I read it then looked at Sergeant Major.

“You know Sergeant Dodge, this is all starting to get in the way of the real reason we are here –and that is to train you and the others. I can’t focus on the course when I have to constantly be distracted by things such as this. We just need this to go away so we can get on with training. Our goal is to graduate both of you –I’d hate to see either of you [me or the Sergeant] not finish the course because you got held up in an investigation or lost too much classroom time because of something like this. So if you just sign that you can go back to class and this is all over with. If you don’t want to sign it I understand but you know, I’ll probably have to pull you out of the course . . . “

I knew exactly what he was doing –he was threatening me –he was using his rank and position to do something I did not want to do.

I wish I could say I didn’t cave –but I did. He scared me. He won. And I was tired of always being the cry baby.

I signed the statement and left. As I was walking out I felt a knot in my stomach. I knew I had not done the right thing and yet, I felt like I had been forced into it.