Patty joined the Illinois National Guard when she was seventeen. She deployed to Iraq in 2003, and, as a woman and a veteran, she feels very weird about being perceived as one or the other, but never both.

Patty was exposed to military sexism in basic training for the first time, and it became particularly pervasive while she was in Iraq. She witnessed the chain of command and rank structure coercing women soldiers into having sexual relationships. Her platoon sergeant would take photographs of the female soldiers and then creepily attach them to the doors of the women's rooms. When the women complained about how it made them feel, nothing was done.

Still while in Iraq, Patty saw a drunken CID officer stumbling around. The CID officer flashed his badge and asked her who there would have sex with him. The women complained about him and his advances, but nothing was done.

It is very apparent that Patty could have gone on and on forever about this, but time constraints and her own anxiety appear to have kept her from giving her full testimony. She closed with the military health care system's policy on rape victims; it is not kind.