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Loading ...Navy petty officer to face punishment in hazing
10.21.2009 4:17pm EDT
(Annapolis, Md.) The Navy says it will discipline the former leader of a bomb-sniffing dog unit in Bahrain following an investigation into allegations of hazing and sexual harassment.
Among the alleged victims was a gay sailor who said he developed post-traumatic stress disorder from the abuse and left the Navy by outing himself.The decision to discipline Chief Petty Officer Michael Toussaint (too-’SAHNT) was announced Wednesday, following the Navy’s decision last month to review more than 90 allegations occurring between 2004 and 2006.
The Secretary of the Navy also is issuing a letter of censure.
The Chief of Naval Operations has directed the Naval Criminal Investigative Service to conduct additional interviews with Navy personnel who were formerly stationed in Bahrain.
Toussaint’s discipline was forced retirement as of 1/10. Some punishment! IMHO should have been stripped of all veteran’s benefits and pension rather than be rewarded for life for his actions.
See http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/10/navy_bahrain_hazing_102109/
We paid for this asshole to spend time harassing and intimidating his subordinates? Instead of doing his JOB, which is stopping the flow of terroristic materiel into the US? Those subordinates are Americans (or prospective Americans) who volunteered their lives to defend this country–and this arrogant piece of stool presumes to put his ego over training American servicemembers? I’d love to see some muckety-muck find a way to try him for multiple charges of abandonment of post and giving comfort to the enemy, if not outright treason. Every time he screwed with his trainees, he was failing to perform his assigned mission, and the failure was willful. “Discipline”? How about a LONG stint in the stockade and a little dishonorable discharge? That’d be a good start.
This is sickening on so many levels. It is tragic what Rocha went through, but at least he got an honorable discharge out of it. His friend who ended up committing suicide was not nearly so lucky.
For more details, see http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/10/navy_bahrain_hazing_100509w/
DADT is stupid on almost too many levels to count. Even straight (mostly female) enlistees suffer from it because after a woman is assaulted or harassed by a man, she is often threatened with accusations of being a lesbian to make her keep quiet.
I also read recently about a marvelous program that uses adaptive sports to help injured vets deal with traumatic brain injuries and the stress that goes along with them. One participant noted that he was scared to sign up for this program because it included spouses. He is gay and was afraid of outing himself. Can you imagine that, after suffering a devastating injury in service to an ungrateful nation, you still have to be afraid of being truthful during your rehabilitation? Talk about adding insult to injury.
Luckily for this man, it turned out well. He participated and made great strides. The sports program found out that he was actually more of an opera lover. They hooked him up with the San Diego opera and have been paying for his vocal training for the past year.
I wonder how many other injured LGBT vets have not had that kind of experience in their rehabilitation and treatment?
what happens the the Gay Man who had the cohones to stand up and do the right thing and resign by outing himself? Does our country lose the service of this brave man? While the coward only gets Censured? Makes you wonder how the military will handle the repeal of DADT!
Doesn’t give me much hope.