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Victims, witnesses in need deserve VWAP indeed

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Monet Villacorte
  • 99th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
With the many different support functions and services Nellis AFB offers, it may come as no surprise that numerous service members and their families might not have heard about a particular service offered by the legal office called the Victim Witness Assistance Program.

The mission of the program is to care for people affected by crimes perpetrated by Air Force members and ensure an effective military justice process is taking place.

Capt. Veronica Bath, U.S. Air Force Warfare Center chief of adverse actions and VWAP coordinator, said the program is in place for three reasons.

"The first is to mitigate the effects of crime on victims and witnesses," said Bath. "If a person has been either a victim of a crime by a military member or they were a witness to a crime and provided information to the Air Force, the idea is we want to be able to put them back in the position they were in before something bad happened to them."

Bath also stated if any loss had taken place, whether it be physical injury or monetary, the VWAP wants to be able to help them and make things right.

"People need to know about this (program) because you never know when you're going to be potentially a victim or witness," said Bath. "If you are in that situation, we are here to help you out."

Bath expressed although witnesses and victims are encouraged to participate in VWAP, the program's coordinators don't pressure them to do anything that isn't right for their situation.

"The second (goal) of the VWAP is to encourage victims and witnesses to participate with the military justice system because it can be hard to be a victim or a witness," said Bath. "We try to make it easier for them to come in and testify in court and know what's going on so that we can get the bad guys and make sure they are not committing misconduct anymore."

The third reason VWAP is in place is to make sure the Air Force is meeting the requirements of federal law. 

Service members and dependents can expect to receive a wide variety of services within the program to not only gain more legal understanding, but also support and even financial assistance depending on the crime.

"People are not familiar with the justice system so we educate them here," said Staff Sgt. Rochelle Schwarz, USAFWC military paralegal and VWAP coordinator. "Also if they don't know where to go, we get to help them and it's self-satisfying." 

According to the 2014 statistics gathered by security forces, Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Sexual Assault Response Coordinator, the chaplain and the Judge Advocate General here, there were 2,142 people that have successfully used the program. 

For more information on the VWAP, contact the legal office at 702-652-5407 and ask for the VWAP coordinator. The legal office is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

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