During a recent Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Sen. Mike Rounds brought to light the story of an 18-year-old female recruit who is considering resigning after being forced to shower with biological males as part of the Biden administration's transgender policies.
She also had to sleep in between "two individuals who were supposedly changing from male to female." They had initiated chemical interventions to change genders had not yet undergone mutilation surgeries.
The military recruit said she was placed in an "extremely uncomfortable situation" but was afraid to speak about it out of fear of adversely affecting her new career.
Rounds, noting that Biden administration's failure to meet recruitment goals, said he heard about the matter from the attorney general of the South Dakota National Guard, who conceded that the soldier's options were slim.
"Sen. Rounds did a real service in putting on the record, for the first time that I'm aware of, an incident involving an 18-year-old girl who in the military, in boot camp, was forced to coexist in intimate quarters, including showers, with biological men who had their designator changed to female," comments Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness (CMR). "This should not happen to any female recruit or member of the military."
On the other hand, Donnelly is appalled by what she calls the completely inadequate response from General Charles Q. Brown Jr., the nominee to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense that advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council, and the National Security Council on military matters.
"He did not say that he would do anything to stop what is making this young woman feel uncomfortable," Donnelly notes about Brown. "If you listen carefully, what you hear there is the admission that, well, we really don't do anything about these issues. We don't consider them problems, and I will continue that policy if I am confirmed as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. That was appalling."
According to a statement the Pentagon released to Fox News, Department of Defense policy "is that all service members must be treated with dignity and respect. We would encourage any troop who's feeling uncomfortable or has concerns about privacy in shared spaces to work through their chain of command. Commanders may employ reasonable accommodations to respect the privacy interests of service members."
In Sen. Rounds' view, that seems to only apply to the transgender individuals, not on the individuals who are working with them.
The CMR president thinks there needs to be a full investigation.
