You'd think they would put this in the military recruiting manuals

[Jason McCullough]

The death of a 16-year-old girl in a Fort Lewis barracks is triggering a wide-ranging review of post policies that should have prevented her from entering the troops' living quarters. Those policies allow barracks access only when a minor is accompanied by a legal guardian, according to a Fort Lewis spokesman. That did not appear to have happened Sunday when the sophomore from Lakes High School in Lakewood was found dead along with a second 16-year-old girl who remains hospitalized.

Ok, that's odd. But the really odd part:

The manager of a dry-cleaning store a short distance north of the post said she's seen teenage girls go car to car asking for a ride onto the base.

"It's easy for them to get on the post," said Maria Dibbens, manager of Plaza Cleaners. "It happens all the time. They want to get on base and see the young GIs."

Dibbens said she often sees teenage girls approaching uniformed military men in the parking lots of a convenience store and a service station across the street from her shop.

"It happens more in the summer," Dibbens said. "Sometimes you see them get into the trunk of a car."

The practice of girls trying to meet up with soldiers apparently goes back years.

Suzette Johnson, a 43-year-old paralegal, recalls partying at Fort Lewis as a 16-year-old student attending Clover Park High School in the early 1980s.

"It was open season on young women as far as sexual conquests, and nobody paid any attention as to age," she said. "It never came up in the conversation."

@?@#?#?@

[Jon Rowe]

how did they die? Alcohol Poisoning?

[charmtrap]

I don't get it. Howzabout a link?

[Tim James]

I didn't get it either until I realized that the poor transition in the second quote leads you to draw the conclusion that teenage girls are actively trying to break rules to be your sexual conquest. Recruiting through the roof for horny kids just out of high school!

[Bahimiron]

Am I reading this right? Are they saying that it's just an accepted right of passage in this area for teenage girls is to sneak onto a military base and get gangbanged by troops?

[Tim James]

I think they were probably trying to do the opposite and make it sound ominous with the quote from the washed up paralegal, but including that part about teens attempting to get on base just makes it a weird article.

[Jason McCullough]

Whoops, forgot the link.

Bahimiron: sex yes, gangbangs not as I read it.

[Bahimiron]

I bet the day after this story went out there, Suzette Johnson had a very awkward phone call with her mom about all those sleepovers she was doing in the 10th grade.

[Sarkus]

While the military should be doing a better job of monitoring access to the base by underage girls, it's hardly as if 18 and 19 year old men aren't commonly partying with 16 (and even under) girls these days. The age of the girls is less of an issue. Plus another girl who was involved survived so the full details in this case will come out.

[Rimbo]

Originally Posted by bahimiron

Am I reading this right? Are they saying that it's just an accepted right of passage in this area for teenage girls is to sneak onto a military base and get gangbanged by troops?

Gangbangs, no. Have sex with, yes.

[Cory]

The death of a 16-year-old girl in a Fort Lewis barracks is triggering a wide-ranging review of post policies that should have prevented her from entering the troops' living quarters. Those policies allow barracks access only when a minor is accompanied by a legal guardian, according to a Fort Lewis spokesman. That did not appear to have happened Sunday when the sophomore from Lakes High School in Lakewood was found dead along with a second 16-year-old girl who remains hospitalized.

wait, do we know how they died? shouldn't that take priority now over how they got in there?

[Sarkus]

Originally Posted by Cubit

wait, do we know how they died? shouldn't that take priority now over how they got in there?

As the article says, they are saying it was drug related. There was another girl there as well who was found unconscious.

[Tim James]

I know this is a really sad story about two dead girls and other clueless teenagers, but a low part of me hopes people start up with the old military poster photoshops.

[jpinard]

Isn't it statutory rape whether the girls are willing or not? Someone in the armed services should sure as hell know high-school girls are off limits no matter how close they think their ages are. I mean we had tons of mandatory sessions on this kind of thing in college and we're basically all the same age. You'd think the amry would do the same?

[Demon G Sides]

Originally Posted by jpinard

Isn't it statutory rape whether the girls are willing or not? Someone in the armed services should sure as hell know high-school girls are off limits no matter how close they think their ages are. I mean we had tons of mandatory sessions on this kind of thing in college and we're basically all the same age. You'd think the amry would do the same?

Oh come the fuck on. Everyone knows that at the ages between 16-20 no one gives a shit; you're ready to have sex and thats good enough when you're fucked up.

Everyone got that talk in high school; its another thing to listen to it.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Demon G Sides

Oh come the fuck on. Everyone knows that at the ages between 16-20 no one gives a shit; you're ready to have sex and thats good enough when you're fucked up.

That doesn't change the fact that it is illegal and people go to jail for it.

[Sarkus]

Originally Posted by jpinard

Isn't it statutory rape whether the girls are willing or not? Someone in the armed services should sure as hell know high-school girls are off limits no matter how close they think their ages are. I mean we had tons of mandatory sessions on this kind of thing in college and we're basically all the same age. You'd think the amry would do the same?

I'm sure they do get those talks but just like it doesn't stop it in the rest of the world, it isn't going to stop it in the military.

While the death of the girl is the biggest issue in this case, a drug related death and the possibility of statutory rape are hardly news when you are talking about teens. What the military does need to look at is how easy it is for civillians to get on base to party. While I never served in the military, my father's stories have suggested they had no real opportunity to party with civillians on base. Something has obviously changed.

[Rimbo]

Also, statutory rape laws are different from state to state. Some states are lower than 18. Some states specify an age difference clause, e.g. if the younger partner is younger than 18 but older than 16 and the older partner is no more than 2 years older; so 17/15 is illegal, 18/16 is legal, 19/16 is illegal. The latter kind seems to me the sanest kind of law, because if two 17 year olds have sex in a state with a hard age limit of 18, they are both guilty of statutory rape, and that's just ridiculous.

[Sarkus]

Originally Posted by Rimbo

Also, statutory rape laws are different from state to state. Some states are lower than 18. Some states specify an age difference clause, e.g. if the younger partner is younger than 18 but older than 16 and the older partner is no more than 2 years older; so 17/15 is illegal, 18/16 is legal, 19/16 is illegal. The latter kind seems to me the sanest kind of law, because if two 17 year olds have sex in a state with a hard age limit of 18, they are both guilty of statutory rape, and that's just ridiculous.

Personally I think the idea of statutory rape is largely ridiculous, but that's an issue best left to the P&R thread probably.

[Jakub]

Naivete would be the word to summarize this thread.

[Aeon221]

Originally Posted by Jakub

Naivete would be the word to summarize this thread.

I think the best one word summary would be "fail".

[JeffL]

Huh. I was raised in an Air Force family, and went on base quite a bit, and I remember the APs being extremely vigilent about checking my ID even when I was with my father, before they would let me in (dependents have military IDs also.) And I recall it was a very big hassle when I wanted to bring a girlfriend on base with me and my father (she and I were both around 15-16 at the time.)

[Guido Jones]

Apparently the age of consent in Washington State is 16, by the way.

[Flowers]

As long as you are within 5 years of age of the 16 or 17 year old. So it's a standard Romeo and Juliet law.

[Guido Jones]

Originally Posted by Flowers

As long as you are within 5 years of age of the 16 or 17 year old. So it's a standard Romeo and Juliet law.

The wiki and various other age of consent sites don't mention that, but you're the lawyer, not me.

[ElGuapo]

Originally Posted by Flowers

As long as you are within 5 years of age of the 16 or 17 year old. So it's a standard Romeo and Juliet law.

Look here you. I've seen enough barely legal pretend amateur porn to know to always check ID. That's part of teh sexahy!

[Rimbo]

Originally Posted by Sarkus

Personally I think the idea of statutory rape is largely ridiculous, but that's an issue best left to the P&R thread probably.

I don't mind the idea, but think that many implementations of it are lazily-written and lead to ridiculous injustice in practice.

[Flowers]

Originally Posted by Sarkus

Personally I think the idea of statutory rape is largely ridiculous, but that's an issue best left to the P&R thread probably.

You are thinking of this, similar offense, which is committed by a woman who forces herself on a man while wearing false facial hair.

[Flowers]

Originally Posted by Rimbo

I don't mind the idea, but think that many implementations of it are lazily-written and lead to ridiculous injustice in practice.

Tell me about it.

[Rimbo]

Yeah, I hate how those statutory rape laws cause my kid's go-kart to crash.