By: Joseph Christopher Rocha

Those, like me, who are following the Pentagon's plans to end the ban on gays in the military, expect big changes soon. Based on a just-completed 45-day review of "don't ask, don't tell," the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has received recommendations to apply the policy in "a manner that is more appropriate and fair." And while a full repeal of the policy likely remains months away, even the simplest change - raising the bar for the kind of evidence required to launch an investigation - could have a profound impact on the lives of gays and lesbians serving in the military. I know, because if that change had been made three years ago when I was enlisted, I would be a sophomore at the United States Naval Academy today.

After a childhood of abuse at the hands of a meth-addicted mother, I had only one dream, and only one ambition: to graduate from the Naval Academy and to dedicate my entire life to serving my country. I enlisted on my 18th birthday and, after serving for nearly four years and receiving three congressional nominations for the Naval Academy, I was accepted to the academy's preparatory school.

Youth Radio reporter Rachel Krantz speaks to KCBS about yesterday's stunning turn of events in the Bahrain Navy Hazing scandal. 

You can find the interview on KCBS' Interviews and Analysis page.

By Rachel Krantz and the Youth Radio Investigative Unit
This story is part of Youth Radio's investigation: Sailors' Abuse Kept Silent In Navy Canine Unit.

After Youth Radio broke the story last month on widespread hazing in a Bahrain canine unit, the Chief of Naval Operations has completed reviewing how officials handled an investigation into the abuse. He found that the chief petty officer responsible for the abuse had not been adequately punished.

As a result of the top-level Navy review of misconduct in a canine unit in Bahrain, the Secretary of the Navy has censured the unit’s former chief petty officer, Michael Toussaint, forcing him to retire from the Navy.

Previously, an investigation into the hazing at the base in Bahrain between 2004 and 2006 revealed widespread abuse of sailors and other misconduct, including gambling and soliciting prostitutes. On September 22, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead ordered Navy Installations Command (CNIC) to review what actions were taken as a result of the hazing investigation.

"After reviewing the investigation and the CNIC report, Admiral Roughead found the incidents were not in keeping with Navy values and standards and violated Navy’s long standing prohibition against hazing," said Navy spokesperson Commander Elissa Smith.

Smith said the Secretary of the Navy's letter of censure will become part of Toussaint’s permanent military record. Toussaint, now a senior chief petty officer, will be reassigned to Naval Special Warfare Group 2, where he will perform administrative duties until his retirement in January.

Roughead has also ordered the Naval Criminal Investigative Service to interview commissioned officers who served in Bahrain at the time of the hazing. Previously, a navy spokesman said the investigation report had indicated that two commissioned officers might have had knowledge of the hazing events. The spokesman told Youth Radio neither officer was recommended for disciplinary action.

Joseph Christopher Rocha served in the unit and experienced some of the worst abuse at while under Toussaint’s leadership. The 23-year-old said many of his fellow sailors have mixed feelings about the results of Roughead's review.

"A lot of us are disappointed in that Toussaint won’t see his day at a military court martial," Rocha said. "But overall, I commend the CNO and the Secretary of the Navy for a wanting to look further into this, to see how widespread the corruption was."

 

Reporter Rachel Krantz spoke to KPFK Pacifica Radio today about her experience reporting Youth Radio's Sailor Abuse Investigation. She was interviewed by Barbara Osborn and Howard Blume for their weekly show about the media, Deadline LA.

Check below to listen to the interview and hear the inside scoop about how the Youth Radio investigation was brought to the public.

(download mp3)

By Rachel Krantz and the Youth Radio Investigative Unit

This story is part of Youth Radio's ongoing investigation: Sailors' Abuse Kept Silent In Navy Canine Unit.

A Youth Radio investigation finds that the U.S. Navy’s report on hazing in its Bahrain Canine Unit omitted the suicide of the unit’s leading Petty Officer, who feared she had become the scapegoat for widespread abuse.

On January 16, 2007, Petty Officer Jennifer Valdivia was found dead in a small room at her home in Bahrain. The U.S. Navy, which maintains a major base on the island in the Persian Gulf, classified her death as a non-combat related incident. A Navy autopsy later confirmed that 27-year-old Valdivia committed suicide.

On the same day Valdivia’s body was found, the Navy released a report on widespread hazing and abuse in the canine unit where she served as Kennel Master. Though the report’s release was previously delayed multiple times, this time it was published without including the investigation into the suicide of the unit’s leading Petty Officer. And, Valdivia’s death was not mentioned in the subsequent Findings of Fact endorsed by the base command, either.

“I would have expected this to be mentioned in the endorsements… the command in Bahrain had ample time to take her death into account,” said Eugene Fidell, Yale law professor and president of National Institute of Military Justice. “Had I been the staff judge advocate I would have recommended that the command delay its endorsement on the hazing investigation until the suicide investigation was complete, and then see if further investigation into the hazing was warranted.”

Instead, the Navy’s hazing and suicide investigations proceeded on parallel, never-intersecting tracks.

The hazing investigation reveals that the abuse in the Bahrain Canine Unit was extensive. And while the Navy has said multiple personnel were implicated in the misconduct, the sailors interviewed by Youth Radio say unanimously that there was one ringleader, the unit’s Chief Michael Toussaint.

Youth Radio has also obtained redacted copies of the Navy’s two investigations into Valdivia’s death -- one by the Base Commander in Bahrain and the other by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). Together with interviews with her family and six sailors from Valdivia’s unit, the suicide investigations tell the story of a young woman stuck between an abusive and corrupt unit leadership and the young sailors whose lives were scarred to varying degrees by hazing. It’s the story of a scapegoat, who decided the only way out of her Navy unit was death.

“Her final act revealed her to be under stress she was not able to bear, probably a culmination of well-concealed concerns about the ongoing command investigation,” wrote the investigator at the end of his report on Valdivia’s death. “I believe it is unlikely she would have committed suicide if she had not been under such stress.”

[Page Two: "Small Town Girl"]

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Tom Risen at Scoop 44 takes a good look at the pattern behind Iraq and Afghanistan war vet suicides on college campuses. 

“The same amount of suicides happening among active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan are happening among veterans on college campuses,” said Hawthorne, co-founder of the veterans group at George Washington University. “That’s one reason we founded a chapter of Student Veterans of America here, so we can have a place for veterans to come where they can understand each other. There are people on campus who see a guy with the thousand yard stare and the short haircut and they’re like ‘I think I’ll stay away from that guy.”

With the military spread across two wars, nearly 40 percent of the 1.9 million troops who have served in the War on Terror since 2001 have served more than one tour, according to Army statistics. Along with the memory and strain of service, student veterans who are still in their eight-year contract live with the fear of being activated and sent on another tour.

In addition to covering the suicide phenomenon, Risen's piece delves into the reasons behind why some vets find it hard to acclimate into college, and the effect underfunding is having on mental health care for veterans.

Photo by DVIDSHUB

The following is a transcript. To listen, use the audio player in this post. For access to all documents, posts, and images associated with this story see our Sailors' Abuse Investigation Hub.

Joseph Christopher Rocha enlisted in the U.S. Navy on his 18th 
birthday, in 2004. He remembers being excited about his first overseas 
assignment: to serve in Bahrain. He became a dog handler with one of 
the Navy’s biggest kennels. But Rocha says once he got there, he 
entered a culture of hazing and abuse at the hands of his fellow 
service members that made him feel like the animal.



ROCHA: I was hog-tied to a chair, rolled around the base, left in a 
dog kennel that had feces spread in it.



Rocha says six weeks into his deployment, when he made it clear he 
wasn’t interested in the unit’s parties with prostitutes, the Chief, 
Master-at-Arms Michael Toussaint, and others on the base, made him a 
target.



ROCHA: I was in a very small high testosterone-driven unit of men…I 
think that's what began the questioning-you know-‘Why don't you want 
to have sex with her? Are you a faggot?’



Read the rest of the story after the jump...

UPDATE: The following story is a continuation of our feature, "Investigation: Sailors' Abuse Kept Silent in Navy Canine Unit." For those of you who are only beginning to follow the story, here's a full audio version, with transcript.

For access to all documents, posts, and images associated with this story see our Sailors' Abuse Investigation Hub.

After Youth Radio exposed a culture of hazing, including psychological and physical abuse, at a U.S. Navy canine unit in Bahrain, the nation’s top Naval officer has ordered a review of how the abuses were handled. The Chief of Naval Operations who ordered the review is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and principal Naval advisor to the President. Deadline for that review is October 6th.

Incidents of wrongdoing in the unit ranged from spraying down uniformed personnel with hoses to directing sailors to simulate sex acts on videotape. Youth Radio’s interviews reveal that the abuse was  sanctioned and in some cases instigated by the unit's leadership.

Despite 93 incidents of abuse and misconduct uncovered in a 2007 Navy investigation, to date the Navy has not provided a full public accounting of disciplinary action taken against those responsible for the abuse. We do know the unit's Chief at the time, Michael Toussaint, received only a "non-punitive letter of caution". That's the military's equivalent of a slap on the wrist.

Youth Radio has interviewed six sailors from the canine unit who all tell similar stories of abuse, all of whom say Toussaint threatened to revoke their dog certification if they told anyone about the abuse. And some feared worse.

One sailor who served in the unit agreed to speak only if we didn't use her name. "It's supposed to be this tight-knit unit," she said. "We’re supposed to be a family. And when you get into it, the enemy's not outside the line, your enemy’s within…Your enemy is your chain of command."

Youth Radio has learned from a source inside the Navy that Chief Michael Toussaint and another non-commissioned officer were recommended for courts-martial. Instead, the case was closed. Subsequently Chief Toussaint was promoted to the role of Senior Chief with the elite Naval Special Warfare Development Group, based in Dam Neck, Virginia, regarded as the most prestigious dog unit in the Navy.

Our investigation began with the story of Joseph Christopher Rocha, a young gay sailor who feared the consequences of coming forward at the time of his abuse. Rocha stayed silent, but when another soldier made assault charges, the Navy’s commanding officer in Bahrain launched an investigation into allegations of widespread hazing in the unit. Rocha went on record against the unit’s leadership.

“It took a lot of courage to testify against Toussaint,” says Rocha. He says he was devastated when he got a call from the prosecutor assigned to the case informing him they didn’t need his testimony. “That kind of loss of gravity, of saying, what just happened? That stuck with me.”

In addition to the abuses Rocha reported, the Navy’s investigation found evidence to support accusations of physical assault on sailors and, in two instances, prostitutes on base--one was attacked by a dog. At one point, a female sailor was ordered to participate in a videotaped training with another female sailor, who was handcuffed to a bed, and appeared naked under the sheets. They were directed to role-play as lovers.

[See a video of Joseph Christopher Rocha describing the abuse he endured.]

Youth Radio asked Yale Law Professor Eugene Fidell, President of the National Institute of Military Justice, to review the incidents listed in the investigation’s findings of fact.

"It did seem to me (from the materials that were made available) that some criminal punishment under the UCMJ (Universal Code of Military Justice) was called for," says Fidell. "It looked to me like rampant misconduct of a kind that was utterly incompatible with military service on behalf of our country."

Professor Fidell served as a Judge Advocate and has made a career of reviewing military justice cases.

"I would expect everyone in pay grade petty officer and above to be held accountable," says Fidell. "These people have responsibilities, they are supposed to be leaders. We depend on them, and if they’re either engaging in this kind of conduct or tolerating it, they need to be taught a lesson."

On January 3, 2008, Vice Admiral Robert Conway, Commander of Navy installations worldwide (CNIC), issued an email (right), with the subject line, "HAZING." He tells the commanders under his authority they have "an obligation to create and maintain an environment free of hazing." Conway calls the practice "contrary to our Core values of Honor Courage and Commitment" and says that hazing "degrades and diminishes the ability of victims to function within their unit."

The impetus for this email? The investigation into the Bahrain Military Working Dogs Division. The very unit Chief Michael Toussaint led before being promoted.

Youth Radio has tried repeatedly to reach Toussaint for comment through phone calls, email, and social networking sites. Naval Special Warfare spokesperson Sonny Leggett told Youth Radio Toussaint was unavailable for comment because he is in “austere locations.” Toussaint's command confirms they forwarded our questions to him.

We’ve been told the review of the Navy investigation will go to the top command in Washington, DC, but there are no plans at this time to actually reopen the case.

Days before the Navy released its report on hazing in the unit, Toussaint’s second in command while he was in Bahrain -- Petty Officer Jennifer Valdivia -- learned she would be disciplined. She was told she would lose her position in the Military Working Dogs kennel. On January 16, 2007, Valdivia's dead body was found in her Bahrain apartment.

Her suicide, and the circumstances leading up to it, will be the subject of our next report. 

To comment on this story, please visit our Facebook Page.

For more information and resources about abuse in the military check out the following sources:

• Stars and Stripes: Independent U.S. military news
• National Institute of Military Justice
• Federation Of American Scientists: Copy of 2005 Navy Hazing Policy [PDF]
• Office of the Navy Inspector General- Definition Of Hazing

Don't Ask Don't Tell resources:

• Palm Center
• Servicemembers United
• Knights Out

 

A version of this story aired on NPR's All Things Considered.

We met Joseph Rocha at an anti-Prop 8 rally in San Francisco back in May. Little did we know at the time that his story would prove to be so compelling. This week we asked Joseph to share his story with the audience of KQED-FM, and he produced the following Perspective.

By: Joseph Christopher Rocha

News Break:

LIVING WITH PTSD
(Broadcast November 23 on NPR's All Things Considered)

What's the story?