Spoken Words of Pain: Army Officer, Male Survivor Shares Shattering Impact of Sexual Assault to Drive Culture Change
05/27/2021
At a time when commanders and noncommissioned officers across the Army are reckoning with the findings of the Fort Hood report, one officer is sharing his own story of how leadership, both good and bad, can make all the difference for Soldiers. In a stark video, 1st Lt. Rashan Legard uses spoken word poetry to recount his experience after he reported being sexually assaulted. Legard, an E-4 at his first duty station when the assault happened, said the leadership failures he encountered-from not being believed, to leadership turning a blind eye, to being painted as a bad Soldier-are what drove him to become an officer and leader himself.