Advocates Bring Action Against Pentagon for Service-Related Domestic Violence

The first national campaign to hold the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) accountable for their lack of transparency and breach of legal responsibilities related to domestic violence is coming to Capitol Hill May 20. The federal cover-up of service-related domestic violence has left thousands of military spouses, children, caregivers, parents, partners, siblings, and veterans dead, injured, and suffering emotional distress, damages, and real property losses.

The Yellow Ribbon Casualty Campaign (YRCC) is fighting for justice and services for military/veteran families who have suffered domestic violence stemming from combat-related trauma. Campaign participants will gather in D.C. to file the first-of-their-kind federal torts claims and are pursuing a class action lawsuit. The Feres Doctrine, a legal standard barring servicemembers from suing the government, does not extend to family members, so a spouse or child may sue the United States for damages.

Yellow ribbons are a symbol held by military family members awaiting the safe return of a loved one from war. Post-9/11 families in the United States waited a long, long time during the nation’s longest war. But not for this.

Since before the Vietnam War, the Department of Defense (DoD) and the VA have known about the significantly increased risk of domestic violence among combat-exposed troops and veterans, yet they have violated Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations in their duty to inform servicemembers and their families — and violated mandatory reporting laws and policies.

The military has a cottage industry that produces and distributes post-deployment material about reintegration, the “new normal,” and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. None of it contains information about the proven correlation between service-related PTSD and domestic violence. The VA and the DoD implement suicide prevention and intervention safety trainings. They have failed to exercise a commensurate level of reasonable care to prevent and address domestic violence. Perhaps that’s why the January 2013 Army rate for spouse abuse spiked to the “danger zone,” while suicides stayed in the “safety zone.” The reckless disregard for military and veteran families is criminally negligent.

The DoD’s Transitional Compensation for Abused Dependents program provides up to 36 months of transitional funds to help the spouses and children of their employees escape employee (servicemember) abuse. If a business realizes that its staff — as a direct consequence of employment — will kill or injure their spouses and kids, the business is aware of its culpability. Which the Pentagon is, as evidenced in the case of Sergeant Jon Trevino, an Air Force medic who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan repeatedly over a period of about five years. After he came home, with a PTSD diagnosis, he murdered his wife and killed himself. The military called his suicide "service related." So her murder was, too.

Research shows that wives of combat veterans are at the highest risk of potentially lethal domestic violence of virtually any demographic in the nation. A 2006 study published in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy found that veterans with PTSD were “significantly more likely to perpetrate violence toward their partners.” Over 80% had committed at least one act of violence in the previous year, “nearly half being a severe act, such as shooting, stabbing or strangulation, according to the Conflict Tactics Scale [a tool used to assess abuse within relationships].” These rates were six and 14 times higher, respectively, than civilian rates.

The VA and the University of North Carolina released a joint study in 2014 showing that

54% of Iraq/Afghanistan vets struggling with PTSD and alcohol abuse had perpetrated severe aggression or severe violence in the preceding 12 months, typically against their spouse, intimate partner, or children. Many combat-exposed veterans with PTSD also have intermittent explosive disorder (IED), which is exactly what it sounds like. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, IED “is an impulse control disorder characterized by recurrent, discrete episodes of aggression that result in assaults against others or the destruction of property…[T]he intensity of the aggressive behavior is grossly out of proportion” to prior behavior. Simply put, they weren’t like this before. Combat creates a human improvised explosive device (IED).

“We knew they’d be different. We didn’t know they’d be dangerous,” said Kate Hudgens, a former civilian military contractor and a survivor of military domestic violence. “Despite the government’s established knowledge of the link between combat-specific PTSD and increased risk of domestic violence, we were never warned or provided with preventative support.” Hudgens filed an unrestricted report of her (now ex-)husband’s ongoing abuse with Fort Campbell personnel in 2021. He was convicted of two violence-related charges last year. The Fort Campbell Incident Determination Committee said assaults in January 2025 met criteria for physical child abuse, but his command refuses to issue a protection order. Civilian courts in Kentucky and Tennessee have both denied protection orders, citing jurisdiction. Megan Santiago also filed an unrestricted report of domestic violence at Fort Campbell in 2021 before she was murdered by her Army husband.

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) is a federal law that provides avenues for the DoD to be held responsible for the compensation, clean-up, and recovery costs to those affected by the toxic consequences of military operations causing chemical spills. Why is there no law holding the DoD responsible for the toxic consequences of military operations causing domestic assault and murder? Why is the VA liable for medical negligence and duty of care failures resulting in veteran suicide, but not veteran murder?

Suicidal and homicidal impulses are closely related, especially in vets. That's why psychiatric screenings ask, “Are you in danger of harming yourself or others?”

I became an “other” after I helped break the national silence about combat veteran domestic violence, so severely traumatized I was put on disability with a Global Assessment of Functioning score of 41 out of 100 (most people register in the 90s). There were no VA services available for me after divorcing my veteran spouse. Multiple civilian providers quit my care, stating that my “circumstances were so complex, and the prognosis for recovery so poor” they didn’t know how to help. I’ve lost a decade of wages and benefits, had several close calls with suicide, and scratched and clawed my way out of the grave that war had made of my life.

Like many post-9/11 victims of veteran violence, I was enrolled in the VA’s Caregiver Support Program. Despite the inherent responsibility it has to caregivers, the VA has chosen to protect the veteran at the expense of the spouse and child(ren), creating a culture of complicity with veteran intimate partner violence. Nearly 99% of veterans’ caregivers are women, and we are actively groomed by VA personnel not to report abuse. Instead, we’re placed in a “collateral damage file,” instructed in how to prevent our veteran from getting “triggered” and attacking us again, and told to pack a “bug-out bag.” After she reported yet another assault, a VA caseworker handed Kasia Deleon a copy of The Five Love Languages.

A caregiver filed for divorce after years of veteran violence that VA providers documented but did not report nor disclose to the divorce court, which awarded shared custody of their 3-year-old son. During his first weekend visit with his father, the boy was murdered.

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Directive 2012-022, Reporting Cases of Abuse and Neglect, requires VHA medical facilities to follow relevant state statutes for the mandated reporting of possible victims of physical or sexual assault, and abuse and/or neglect of elders, spouses, partners, and children. I submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request #19-05748-F for records of VA mandatory reports pertaining to caregivers or family member victims of veteran violence. After more than two years of delay, the VA sent me a “letter to inquire if you are still interested in your 03/19/2019 request.” I assured them I was. When the VA finally responded, there was not a single document proving compliance with their own policy or mandatory reporting requirements. So they’re either violating policy and the law or violating FOIA requirements.

The VA and the Pentagon have acted like they’re above the law. Congress has turned a blind eye. Civilian courts and courts martial have failed to protect victims of military domestic violence. The Yellow Ribbon Casualty Campaign is working to protect families of veterans and the service members who agreed to put themselves in harm’s way when they raised their right hand. They were never told they might be putting their loved ones in harm’s way as a result.