The Navy Is Investigating the Filming of Servicewomen In Showers as a New Sex Assault Report Emerges

Some of the first women to serve on a Navy submarine were videotaped naked in the shower for more than one year by a male service member who distributed the recordings to other men on board — a scandal that was emerged as the Navy prepares to integrate more submarines, and as advocates blast the military for allowing sexual assault and harassment to continue unpunished.

The women were recorded until November on board the USS Wyoming, one of the first submarines that became integrated with females in December 2011, a commander of Submarine Forces announced in a press statement. The commander, Vice Adm. Michael Connor, said an investigation is in progress and that the alleged perpetrators had been removed from the vessel.

The case is being investigated as a "privacy violation" by the Navy Criminal Investigative Service, but a retired officer who'd spoken with a victim called the situation "clear-cut sexual harassment," the Navy Times reported. A 24-year-old male petty class officer is being questioned for the recordings.

"I just want women, who are all starry-eyed about [integration], to know what they're getting themselves into," the retired officer, one of the USS Wyoming's first women, told the Navy Times.

The Navy revealed the incident just one day before the Department of Defense released a report Thursday showing that most sex assault victims face retaliation when reporting an abuse, and that most accused service members never go to trial.

Sixty-two percent of sexual assault victims still face retaliation from their peers and superiors when reporting abuses, according to the report. Of the 19,000 cases of military sex assault in 2014, only 5,983 were reported, 910 of those went to trial, and 175 people were convicted.

Advocates told VICE News the culture of sexual intimidation went hand-in-hand with the military's justice system for sexual crimes.

"This is a reality that women face — a hostile environment in the military," Miranda Petersen, director of policy and programs with the human rights organization Protect Our Defenders, told VICE News. "It's a shame that women would have to factor that into their decisions to serve."

Being a woman on a Navy sub can be especially difficult. Just 59 women serve in the 22,000-sailor submarine force. And on submarines women sleep in close quarters and shower in co-ed stalls, creating further privacy concerns.

Although "integration is extremely important" in progress for the military's approach toward gender and sexuality, without a reformed military justice system, sexual abuse will run rampant, Petersen said.

Currently commanders decide whether accused service members go to trial — problematic, since commanders have a camaraderie with their soldiers, Petersen told VICE News. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is preparing to return to the Senate with a bill that would remove commanders from that role.

Anu Bhagwati, a former Captain in the Marine Corps who faced an onslaught of sexual harassment in the service, told VICE News that military culture discourages women from reporting sexual abuse.

"Unfortunately nothing surprises me when it comes to sexual harassment stories in the military," said Bhagwadi, now executive director of Service Women's Action Network. Bhagwadi made a formal complaint against her second-in-command that was disregarded, and then sought honorable discharge in 2004.

One of the woman taped on the USS Wyoming almost left the ship, the retired USS Wyoming officer said, but two days before the scheduled departure she decided to stay. The retired officer said the men had shown "intense interest" in the females ever since they arrived on the ship.

"If you don't talk about it, and you let the offenders get away with it, you're actually saying it's ok," the officer told the Navy Times of sexual harassment.

Bhagwadi warned that "people need to focus on retaliation" against victims, so they experience less fear reporting crimes.

The government passed a bill last year to prosecute service members for retaliating against sex assault victims — but the Department of Defense could not prove Thursday that they had charged a single offender, Bhagwati said.

A Department of Defense spokeswoman did not respond to questions about the retaliation law, but she told VICE News that progress had been made. She noted that reports of sex assault in the military increased 8 percent this year, and overall sex assaults decreased by 25 percent, according to the survey.

The spokeswoman also said that the military justice system had reformed significantly, by adding sex assault to the list of offenses with no statute of limitations and by "eliminating the accused's character and military service as factors to be considered by the commander" when deciding whether that person should go to trial.

And she claimed the Department of Defense had "no evidence" to support removing commanders from their roles in determining whether a service member should be tried.

Meanwhile Connor said in a press statement that the submarine incident represented "an extreme breach of trust."

"Women have been successfully integrated in the Navy," Connor said. "It would be inaccurate to say we achieved that without incident, but I can say unequivocally that we are a better force because of that integration."

Rear Adm. Rick Snyder, the director of the 21st Century Sailor's Office, declared progress in the overall decrease in military sex assaults — and said most units had a culture that discouraged such behavior.

"We hear from our Sailors that a low number of them perceive incidents that could lead to sex assault," he said in a press statement. "But a high number, about 85 percent, said they would take action if they saw something happening, so our sailors are going after that problem."

Follow Meredith Hoffman on Twitter: @merhoffman

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