The Fatigues Clothesline Project: One Former Marine Making a Difference on Military Sexual Trauma

In true Margaret Mead spirit -- "“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has" -- meet Regina Vasquez.

Vasquez is a remarkable wife, mother of five(!), college student, and former Marine, with a great project underway that deserves widespread support. (The project is for both men and women veterans.) She writes:

"I am a Marine disabled vet who experienced Military Sexual Trauma along with gender discrimination.

One day while getting ready for college I had an epiphany and now I know what I need to do. For the longest time, for about 12 years I lived with the vision in my head of the two men raping me. About a year ago I got tired of it and decided to get help. I went through group counseling along with individual counseling only to find out that yes I needed to talk to someone and now I'm ready to make it public so I am able to help those who suffered like me move past it all.

I participated in a Clothesline Project for sexual trauma survivors. For this clothesline project we got to write or make art on our T-shirts by telling our story. When we were done we all got to hang it in front our town's courthouse on a clothesline, hence The Clothesline Project's name. 

I didn't mean to take a lot of attention away from the other gals because I felt they need the validation as well but my T-shirt gained so much attention. While standing behind them acting like an observer I heard complete strangers say "I can't believe this kind of things happen in our military" and such. 

This is where my epiphany came from: Why not bring the public in by making a "Fatigues" Clothesline Project for all the women and men who did serve and are still serving our great Nation? It will be discreet, meaning no names, but still be able to have some validation and justice for our souls. I named it "Fatigues" because one fellow veteran pointed out, it is what we were wearing while going through it all and after suffering for so long we feel fatigued. 

What I'm asking from you is to take time and I know how painful it is but well worth it in the end   because for some of us, we were denied our justice due to circumstances. For some of us we may not want to tell people what happened to us. This is a good tool in helping with the process. You will be able to tell your story and no one will know who it came from and still gain the satisfaction of knowing your story is being told and heard. I want you to do this for me, please take a uniform shirt and turn it inside out. Reason for turning it inside out, it's because even though we were raped, harassed, any kind of abuse whether it be verbal abuse or physical we still take pride in serving our nation but what we go through is what we cover up with that pride for our Nation by wearing the uniform. Freedom isn’t free, this is another way of telling the public what we endured for their freedom.

So I’m asking again, no names, your story on a uniform shirt turned inside out about what you experienced while serving our country’s freedom and in return earn validation, justice for your soul and a chance to be heard. 

My goal is to hang all the uniform shirts up in a year or a year and a half in front of our Nation’s White House so that everyone will see what we go through by serving for their freedom. I want to hang them up on a national holiday, Veteran’s Day, by next year or if not, the following year. 

This is a safe way of being heard for all of us. No command getting involved, no anyone but our freedom of speech through our uniform shirts. By doing this it will allow civilians a chance to better understand us and to educate them on the matter. 

Please send your completed shirts to:

Fatigues Clothesline
c/o Regina Vasquez
P.O. Box 194
San Marcos, TX 78667-0194

Says Vasquez, about the shirts: "I will take them, protect them, will not share who they came from and guard them with my heart till it’s time to hang them."

Editor's note: Please share this post (article) with anyone you know who may have experienced military sexual trauma. Not everyone will want to participate in the project, but many will. The outpouring of support from other veterans for this project has been impressive indeed. Said another MST survivor, "(MST) is painful, powerful and more common than people realize. Thank you for being our voice."

Instructions on making the shirts will follow in another blog post, but for more information, see this graphic, which clearly shows the applicability to men and women veterans.