352nd SOSS Airman stepped-up, stepped-in

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Christine Halan
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  Mostly all military members go through the annual bystander intervention training and learn strategies to prevent various sorts of violence.

“Say Something” was a six-month initiative created by Airmen from Mildenhall. The intent of the initiative was to promote positive bystander intervention behaviors. Approximately once per month, a team of actors would pop up on the installation (in a flash mob style) to act out a scenario and allow any bystanders the opportunity to step up and step in to address a variety of concerning situations. The format also allowed for quick discussion about intervention techniques (i.e., direct vs. indirect) and how to potentially mitigate the barriers that prevent some individuals from stepping up and stepping in.

“Many of our prevention initiatives are built from the ideas of RAFM Airmen and ‘Say Something’ is one of them,” said Genevieve Brock, 100th Air Refueling Wing Sexual Assault Prevention & Response Victim Advocate. “An Airmen approached the office with a concern about a general lack of intervention during negative and/or harmful situations, we put together a working group of Airmen and they built the initiative. They created and scripted the scenarios that they felt would resonate with their peers, and we provided the oversight to ensure that their steps met the intent of primary prevention.”

Six scenarios were acted out around base in the hope that someone would step in on each one. The scenarios included a domestic dispute with a female aggressor, demeaning language from a supervisor to a subordinate, a drinking scenario in the club, verbal expressions of hopelessness, sexual harassment (female on male) and harassment based on sexual orientation/preference.

Senior Airman Erika Sanders, 352nd Special Operations Support Squadron signals analyst, was on her lunch break at the Base Exchange and was looking for a Christmas gift for her father. As she walked in, she saw a couple arguing.

“I recognized the guy from a mutual friend and I saw a woman yelling at him about something to do with shopping for Christmas gifts,” she said. “And I thought it was a bit of a heated discussion but I wanted to give her a moment to calm down before saying anything.”

She then stepped into one of the stores adjacent to the fight, and intently continued to listen for another minute or two. She had noticed several glances from other bystanders, but no one attempted to intervene.

“That’s when I decided to go say something,” she explained. “So I just walked up to the two of them; the woman was very upset and the man was kind of on the defensive side. I stepped in between them and basically told her, in not too many words, to calm down.”

With the woman acting somewhat hostile, Sanders explained she tried to remain calm and respectful and stood her ground during the intervention explaining to the woman she needed to take the situation somewhere else.

The once hostile women then smiled from ear to ear, took off her jacket and revealed a bright lime-green t-shirt that read “Say Something.”

With a look of confusion on her face, Sanders turned around to find the man had also been wearing a similar shirt. When she turned around even further she saw Dr. Ivonn Ellis-Wiggan, 100th ARW Sexual Assault Response Coordinator, walking up to her with a giant smile on her face. Sanders instantly knew something was up.

“I hadn’t been to the training yet, where they had announced that they would be going around and setting up these skits.” Sanders laughed. “I put two and two together and was kind of embarrassed to be honest, knowing that I had fallen into it.”

Having been previously in an abusive relationship herself, Sanders was worried for the man’s well-being and felt protective of him.

“I know there’s that stigma out there that guys can’t really respond to women, especially when they’re being really aggressive,” she explained. “I felt like if he had a woman standing up to another woman perhaps that would kind of calm the situation.”

During the altercation she felt confident and knew her purpose and right of being there.

“I didn’t know anything about him or her and their relationship, but I did feel like she was being aggressive and that is not how any healthy relationship should be,” she said. “Having been in an abusive relationship, I think I can identify abusive relationships pretty quickly. And not saying that’s grounds to assume they have an abusive relationship, but that was rather an abusive moment for her to be yelling at him the way she did.”

Due to her relationship experience, SrA Sanders feels confident in her intervention skills and a comfort in stepping in, and she believes that this training is particularly useful for those needing the extra help with stepping up and stepping in, when necessary.

“The training is definitely good, I think (the Airmen who organized the initiative) efforts are very worthwhile. I’m really glad to see that they’re doing these social experiments and their effects. It’s definitely training that everyone should take seriously,” Sanders said. “I think it’s great, especially when it comes to looking not just for physical abuse, but emotional abuse as well. I feel it’s a field a lot of people are still unaware of when it comes to these social dynamics of relationships.”