Many women in combat are not only dodging enemy fire, but they’re also trying to ward off violent sexual assaults and harassment by their fellow colleagues and, in some cases, residents of the land they are trying to defend.

And with more than 190,000 women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are being pushed to more aggressively address the issue.

It took former Navy nurse Diane Pickel Plappert six months to tell a counselor that she had been raped by Iraqi men in Hillah while on duty in Iraq. Army National Guard soldier Carolyn Schapper says she was harassed by a fellow soldier in Iraq so often that she began changing clothes in the shower for fear he’d barge into her room unannounced, as he had on several occasions.

The Associated Press has learned that of the female veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who have walked into a VA facility, 15 percent have screened positive for military sexual trauma. That means they indicated that while on active duty, they were sexually assaulted, raped or sexually harassed, receiving repeated unsolicited verbal or physical contact of a sexual nature. In January, the VA opened its 16th inpatient ward specializing in treating victims of military sexual trauma, this one in New Jersey. The facility is adding keyless-entry locks on hospital room doors so female patients feel safer.

While the incomplete and not-up-to-date data is stunning, it isn’t proof that women in war zones are increasingly becoming victims of sexual assault more than other female military personnel or American women in general. But it does threaten morale, performance and general well-being.

The Miles Foundation, a nonprofit group that provides support to victims of violence associated with the military, says that, since 2002, it has received more than 1,000 reports of assault and rape in the U.S. Central Command areas of operation, which include Iraq and Afghanistan. But again, that’s only reported cases. Many women feel they will be punished, removed from duty or further harassed or assaulted if they report incidents, especially if their aggressor is their superior.

In April, two more women testified before Congress that they were raped, assaulted and harassed while working in Iraq for the U.S.-based contractor KBR — though no criminal charges have been brought in either case. Not only did they endure physical trauma, but no one wanted to pay attention to their stories once they told their employers.

One of the victims, Dawn Leamon, said she felt as if she had no recourse and she feared for her safety.

"It’s very easy in Iraq for someone to disappear, easy for accidents to happen … I could fall, I could have a head injury, and it could be explained,” she said.

This summer, the Pentagon is bringing experts together to come up with a more aggressive prevention strategy, and working with the nonprofit group Men Can Stop Rape to help teach troops how to identify warning signs.

Experts say a big part of stemming the problem is proper punishment of the perpetrator.

"You have to be able to trust fellow soldiers, and if you can’t do that, you’re basically on your own. So it’s really rough, really rough for them," said Colleen Mussolino, national commander of the Women Veterans of America.

A vast majority of women at war feel safe with their comrades, "but for the ones who feel unsafe, it’s hell," said Lory Manning, a retired Navy captain who directs the Women in Military Project at the Washington-based Women’s Research and Education Institute.