As she endured repeated bullying, sexual abuse and harassment, the woman said she had no avenue for support.
Her evidence to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide was given under witness name CB1 on Tuesday, when she noted that civilians would be "absolutely horrified" by what she had been forced to endure.
The woman said she was 19 when she joined the navy and was one of few female recruits at the Navy training school, HMAS Cerberus in Victoria.
"I didn't feel safe at recruit school," she told the inquiry.
"I was (sexually) assaulted by my petty officer who was in charge of my squad and I also experienced harassment by him and other petty officers that were in charge of us."
She and other female recruits were subjected to the male bonding rituals at Cerberus, like "the dance of the flaming arseholes", she added.
"Men would take their pants down and put toilet paper..." she said.
"It was like living in the west, wild west, in a movie where, honestly, if people, civilians had walked in and seen that, they would have been absolutely horrified."
The inquiry was told when CB1 got her first posting at Sydney's HMAS Kuttabul, the daily abuse and sexual harassment continued, but again she didn't feel she could report it to her warrant officer as he was bullying her as well.
At that point, she said, "something snapped and I just kind of went off the rails".
"I was drinking a lot, I was partying, I became very promiscuous and put myself in very dangerous situations that, yeah, I'm surprised that nothing worse had happened to me."
CB1 said when she made her first suicide attempt at Kuttabul, she felt there was no-one to turn to for help, so she covered it up.
"I was just fearful of the officers and the people above you. Because of the way they treated you, like a number, and the way that you were so dehumanised.
"It was like the culture, you suck it up, you deal with it. You … never cried, you never show emotion."
When CB1 fell pregnant she left the navy after four years, but it would take another 12 years before she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and PTSD.
CB1 told the commission her struggle to get compensation from the Department of Veterans' Affairs further traumatised her, leaving her unable to pay her rent and "barely feed myself".
The DVA staff she dealt with had little insight into her plight. She said it was "like talking to a robot who … because they are part of the system they don't get it and they can't empathise at all".
CB1 said one of the greatest hurdles for female veterans was that the DVA still failed to recognise not all injured veterans had seen combat, but were victims of abuse from fellow defence members.
"They need to … give more credence to women … and recognise women more who have suffered abuse," she said.
"It affected my relationships with my children, my family, to the point where I can never get that back.
"It's affected every aspect of my life. If …. that hadn't have happened … my life would just be so different."
The commission hearing continues in Canberra.
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