Sam Madrid* Marines, 1962–68 When a gunnery sergeant tells you to take off your clothes, you better take off your clothes. He pinned my arm above my head and my knee in the crook of his arm and covered my mouth with his right hand and looked at me and said, “You will not make a noise.” He managed to wrestle me onto my back, and I started freaking out. Gary Jones* Army, 1984–86 At first I thought he was playing around. Matthew Owen* Army, 1976–80 I heard one of them say, “Get that broom over there by the lockers.” He kept saying, “You're going to like this.” Richard Welch Air Force and Army, 1973–82 I was coming in and out of consciousness.
Terry Neal Navy, 1975–77 The part that I remember before I passed out was somebody saying they were going to teach me a lesson. To understand this problem and why it persists twenty-two years after the Tailhook scandal, GQ interviewed military officials, mental-health professionals, and policymakers, as well as twenty-three men who are survivors not only of MST but also of a bureaucracy that has failed to protect them.
