Foul comments -- Academy instructor’s remarks land him in court-martial

Since 01-23-06

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Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 4:38 PM
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Subject: Foul comments -- Academy instructor’s remarks land him in court-martial

For more than two years, sexual harassment has been a particularly volatile topic at the academy. This summer, the Defense Department released a 96-page report on sexual harassment and sexual violence at its academies, including startling facts from a 2004 survey of nearly 2,000 anonymous female cadets and midshipmen.

More than half of the women surveyed reported being sexually harassed while attending the academies. That harassment was “primarily verbal,” the report found. Black’s comments on the Norfolk trip came just weeks after that report was released. While walking past the decommissioned battleship Wisconsin in downtown Norfolk, Va., Black allegedly said among his students, “Battleships are just so freaking awesome, it gives me a hard-on just talking about it.”

That in itself probably might have been brushed off as the crude bluster of a junior officer. But Black allegedly then turned to a female midshipman second class and made a more personal, pointed comment. “Even [name] would get a hard-on, wouldn’t you ... oh, that’s right, you can’t do that, so I guess it would be tweaking your nipples.” In a statement read by the prosecution at a Jan. 13 pretrial hearing, the midshipman said she was “appalled” at the comment, but that Black said he was sorry the next day.

She said she accepted his apology. Under established Navy procedures, that should have been the end of it. But Black’s oceanography department colleague, Lt. Cmdr. Shelly Whisenhant, pushed the matter up the chain of command. Whisenhant would not comment on the matter. Naval Academy Superintendent Vice Adm. Rodney Rempt offered Black a nonjudicial punishment but he turned it down, said Gittins, because it was to be held in public, in the foyer of the academy’s administration building.

An NJP is a matter usually conducted behind closed doors, so “Lt. Black refused. What else could he do?” Gittins said. Now it’s really public. Facing a judge and jury and not just the superintendent, it’s a matter before a special court-martial with potential penalties but no jail time. Gittins says Black’s comments should be put in context, which is that it was a conversation with fellow sailors.

That he followed regulations and apologized means the matter should have been resolved. Gittins claims that pressure on Rempt — fueled by the recent Defense Department study — has turned his client into a scapegoat. “Bad behavior does not mean you’ve committed a crime,” he said. On Jan. 20, Gittins lost a bid to disqualify the superintendent from convening the court-martial and move the trial to a different command where a jury pool would not include Naval Academy faculty.

Naval Academy officials would not comment for this story. Black joined the Navy in August 1998 and was commissioned through Officer Candidate School that November. He has a master of science degree from the University of South Florida and joined the Naval Academy Oceanography Department in April 2003.

Salty language

David Segal, a sociology professor at the University of Maryland, specializes in military culture. He says the large-scale public proceedings of a court-martial can backlash. “One of the costs of overreaction is women who feel offended are reluctant to go forward,” he said. As for Gittins, he thinks the academy has fallen victim to political correctness at the expense of forging hardened warriors.

“We are creating a ‘let’s pretend’ society,” Gittins said. “They’re going to see a lot worse than this in the war on terrorism shortly after they get their commissions.” Lory Manning couldn’t disagree more. A retired Navy captain, Manning served 25 years in the Navy, commanding a signal station on Diego Garcia and serving on the staffs of the chief of naval personnel and chief of naval operations.

She directs the Women in the Military Project for the Women’s Research and Education Institute in Washington, D.C. “In the old days, 20 or 25 years ago, this was the ‘man’s navy,’ and if you didn’t like it, you can get out of the ‘man’s navy,’” she said. “It’s not the ‘man’s navy.’ It’s the citizen’s navy. ”She agrees with the recent sexual harassment task force findings that held “leadership, staff, faculty, cadets and midshipmen must model behaviors that reflect and positively convey the value of women in the military.”

While cursing at a young seaman for fouling a line or dropping a wrench can be expected, sexual language is not. “People do that [swear]. There’s room for people to be human, but they need to be professional, and that’s the first requirement,” Manning said.Eugene Fidell, a military law expert, has no sympathy for Black.

“If the U.S. Navy is serious about having a gender-integrated work force, the comments shown here go beyond being tasteless,” said Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice. Even if there’s still cultural friction within the military, he says you just have to watch your mouth these days. “People who use salty language in a mixed-gender environment proceed at their own risk,” Fidell said, “whether it’s in the flag mess or in the engine room.”
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Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)