Sen. Richard Blumenthal has introduced a new bill he says will offer more support to military veterans who suffered sexual abuse or harassment while serving in the armed forces.

"One out of every 100 men in the military report some military sexual trauma. But it's one out of every four women,” said Blumenthal. 

Blumenthal says many more sexual assaults go unreported in the military every year.

Retired Army officer Tonya Oxendine says she kept quiet about sexual abuse at the hands of her superiors for more than 30 years.

"Who was I gonna go talk to? Because everyone looked like them, there weren't a lot of females, definitely weren't a lot of Black females," said Oxendine.

Blumenthal introduced a bill, along with Republican and Democratic senators, to authorize peer support counselors for veterans suffering from military sexual trauma, or MST.

The peer advisors would be trained as counselors and advocates to work one on one with any veteran making a claim related to MST.

"We have battle buddies in the military, so this is just another way to carry that on that tradition on into what happens in the VA,” said Denise Florio, peer support specialist with the Wounded Warrior Project. 

Representatives of the Wounded Warrior Project say trauma often goes unreported because victims feel alone or ashamed. The Wounded Warriors Project says in a survey of its members last year, more than two thirds of female respondents said they had experienced military sexual trauma.