Theresa Vail

In 2009, she was 19 and the lone female mechanic in a motor pool near Kansas City, where she suffered verbal sexual harassment and “inappropriate comments.” Her advice to female soldiers in similar situations: “Raise hell about it,” said Vail, now 22. “You need to stand up for yourself because nobody’s going to do it for you. I knew even at 19 that this was unacceptable.” Vail at first went to her commander, who sided with her co-workers, she said, “because I was the new girl.” Then she went over her commander’s head and was allowed to transfer out of the the unit. The comments come amid growing scrutiny in Congress and the public of the military’s sexual harassment and assault problem. It’s generally held that many victims do not report for fear of retaliation. She said that, recently, Maj. Gen. Lee Tafanelli, the adjutant general of the Kansas National Guard, approached her to appear in public service announcements about the issue.
“I think it’s wonderful that I’m going to get a chance to help people with my story.” She gave Army Times a candid phone interview in the midst of her yearlong Miss Kansas stint. She plans to begin four years of Army school next fall and go active duty afterward. She is an expert marksman with an M16 rifle, a bowhunter and is fluent in Chinese. “My goal is just to show women that you can have the best of both worlds, that you don’t have to be categorized, that you don’t have to allow other people to categorize you. I know being in the military, I was put in this box that I couldn’t do feminine things, but I know my female soldiers, they all get that. I just wanted to show women, you can be a tomboy, you can have a feminine side. You can have it all if you want it.”