Does Sexual Assault prevention training help?

Yes and no. If we beat it into the system and "over-teach" it then nobody pays attention. If you teach it once a year it is just another mandatory training brief in the mix of many others, but this one is scripted until most of the others. I think the best training comes from instructors who are passionate about the subject and relate to the topic. I know we had a Soldier of mine teach a course about PTSD and he told of his personal struggles and that class was silent. Everyone was listening and everyone was focused. His words, openness, and courage allowed for others to open up and speak about their experiences. If we cookie-cut this training and do not allow for people to share their experiences or try to tailor it to their unit and Soldiers it will touch most the first time, but after that it is as they say just a "refresher". We can do better than this. It has improved, but we can and we must do better than what we are currently doing.

Maybe it has helped as far as getting sources out to people that may need them. But overall I would say no. If someone is enough of a scumbag to sexually assault another person I don't think that taking these classes would help to change them at all.

Hell no it doesn't. If it did, we wouldn't be talking about it.