Surrounded by smoke and wearing breathing equipment and overalls, Danielle Wilson was in a fire simulation drill after joining the Navy with aspirations of being a cook, she told the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide.
It was the late '80s, and recruits had been told to remove their underwear which could stick to their bodies in extreme heat, and Ms Wilson remembers noticing the pockets of her overalls had been cut.
"You weren't to leave anyone behind so you had to touch the person in front of you," she told Tuesday's hearing.
During the drill, the person behind Ms Wilson reached down through her pockets and sexually assaulted her, commissioners were told.
The smoke and the breathing apparatus made it impossible to identify her attacker, and Ms Wilson said she did not get any help from her superiors.
"I still don't know who it was because everyone just sort of came out at once," she said.
"Once I calmed myself down, I went on to report it to my supervisor but was pretty quickly dismissed.
"He just said to suck it up, don't worry about it. He just dismissed it, it was no big deal."
Ms Wilson joined the Australian Navy in 1987 and left in 1990, and the experience has had a lasting impact on her life with periods of depression and panic attacks.
During her service she was also headbutted by a sailor who "didn't like females in the navy" and told by a superior that he would "ruin her sex life forever" if she didn't stop moving during drills, commissioners were told.
Her career was marred by sexual comments, unwanted touching and generally feeling like she was different because she was a woman.
Feeling trapped after signing up for six years, she saw pregnancy as an early exit.
"It wasn't what I had planned, to get pregnant so early, but my boyfriend who became my husband and I…decided to have a baby, and that was my way out," she told the hearing.
It took another 30 years before she finally felt believed after making a complaint to the Commonwealth Defence Ombudsman in 2020.
The Navy eventually apologised to her, saying her experiences should not have been allowed to happen, tolerated or ignored.
The Royal Commission will for the next fortnight probe what defence is doing to address issues with its culture and the support being provided to veterans.
Chief of Navy Australia, Vice Admiral Michael Noonan, is expected to give evidence later Tuesday.
The commission has previously been told accounts of bullying, poor treatment of women, a lack of support for veterans and new recruits being forced to undertake hazing initiation rituals.
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