Miss England 2009 Katrina Hodge recounted the hazing she suffered while serving in the British Army. Her story was published by most of the bigwig dailies of England.
According to the young woman, the male soldiers started harassing her after she was awarded a decoration for bravery during the operation in Iraq. She was only 18 at the time. Katrina Hodge's comrades-in-arms felt that she received the medal only because she was a woman, calling her a "slut."
Ms Hodge recounted receiving many humiliating letters. She was even attacked at the canteen of her garrison.
"One day, a can of Coke was thrown at me when I entered the canteen. It was traumatic," she laments. His command, however, did not open an investigation following these incidents.
Katrina Hodge began her military service at the age of 17 in the Royal British Regiment at Pirbright, Surrey County. The young woman was nicknamed "Barbie de Combat" because she came to register for the service by wearing high heels, false eyelashes and a small pink bag. In 2005, during the operation in Iraq where Katrina spent seven months, she disarmed a jihadist, thus saving the lives of her five companions.
During a seventh month tour of Iraq in 2005, Katrina and her other squaddies had apprehended a suspected rebel fighter and were on their way back to base when their truck crashed.
During the commotion of the crash the prisoner grabbed two rifles and Katrina instinctively punched him in the face causing him to drop the weapons.
In 2009, Mrs. Hodge won the Miss England contest, which aggravated her conflict with other soldiers. In 2015, the young woman withdrew from the army, but she continues to receive sexist messages on the Web.
Katrina, who now lives in Brighton, claims that although her superiors were aware of the torment they failed to look into it, and that she still receives sexist comments online from trolls.
The mum-of-two, who has finally decided to draw attention to the heinous abuse to encourage other women soldiers not to suffer in silence, said: “It’s been 12 years of hell for me and I’m not going to put up with it any longer.
“In 2018 it’s not acceptable for women to be degraded in this way. It’s pure sexism.”
Katrina said that she was concerned that one day her daughters aged six and three will have access to the internet and see the things written about her.
Although she still encourages women to join the Army Katrina believes the sexist culture needs to change. Katrina has logged an official complaint with the Service Complaints Ombudsman and hopes this time her allegations will be taken seriously. She said she believes that if the incidents that occurred back in 2005 happened now they would be dealt with differently but improvement is still needed.
An Army spokesman said: “We take all allegations of bullying and harassment very seriously. Those who are found to have fallen short of our high standards can expect action to be taken.”