"The VA, they just throw pills at you. When I started using cannabis, it was completely different. Now I participate in my life. I'm active. I actually care. It's a complete 180 now."

It wasn't until years after she got out of the Navy that Elizabeth Bietts went to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Bietts, who worked as an airplane mechanic, said she was raped 12 times during her almost seven years in the Navy, and didn't talk about it until she went to file a claim for benefits with the VA years later.

"All these emotions had been suppressed, buried deep inside. I hadn't thought about it or talked about it," Bietts, 36, of Vernon, said during a recent phone interview. "I'd learned to live with it. Thinking about it again, it was a lot." 

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Julia Bergman ~ TheDay.com via Military.com ~