American educator and poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once declared, “Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.”
For the last three years, Congressman Michael Turner (R-OH) and Mary Lauterbach, mother of slain Vandalia marine Maria Lauterbach, have knocked at the gate of the Department of Defense (DoD). Together, Turner and Lauterbach have crusaded for reforms in the DoD’s policies concerning victims of rape and sexual assault. It appears that this duo knocked loud enough at the gate to wake up somebody, as was evidenced by the inclusion of provisions from the Defense Sexual Trauma Response, Oversight and Good Governance Act (Defense STRONG Act), in the FY2011 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Friday, May 1. The NDAA legislation passed the House of Representatives last Friday and now awaits a vote in the Senate. (Read More)