Investigation: Sailors' Abuse Kept Silent in Navy Canine Unit
Originally published on Youthradio.org, the premier source for youth generated news throughout the globe.
By: Rachel Krantz
In the Persian Gulf, on the island of Bahrain, the U.S. Navy has a special division made up of bomb-sniffing dogs and the sailors who handle them. The Bahrain Military Working Dogs Division was featured in a Navy News spot highlighting the work involved in deploying these highly trained canines to sniff out narcotics and explosives coming through the Persian Gulf and into the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Developing trust between the dog and the handler is at the core of what makes canine detection work, as together, their job is to step into situations that can be deadly at any moment. However, that trust between the individual sailor and dog does not necessarily extend to the overall culture of the unit.
A Youth Radio investigation has found that between 2004 and 2006, sailors in the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain Military Working Dogs Division, or "The Kennel," were subjected to an atmosphere of sexual harassment, psychological humiliation, and physical assaults.
It was inside that Bahrain kennel in July 2005 that Petty Officer Joseph Christopher Rocha, then 19 years old, says he was being terrorized by other members of his own division. "I was hog-tied to a chair, rolled around the base, left in a dog kennel that had feces spread in it."
Rocha says that beginning six weeks into his deployment, he was singled out for abuse by his chief master-at-arms, Michael Toussaint, and others on the base, once Rocha made it clear he was not interested in prostitutes. "I was in a very small testosterone-driven unit of men," Rocha says. "I think that's what began the questioning-you know-‘Why don't you want to have sex with her? Are you a faggot?’"
Youth Radio has conducted interviews and obtained documents released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) showing that the hog-tying episode was not the first or only case of harassment and abuse during Rocha's deployment. In another incident cited in the documents, Rocha was forced to appear in a twisted "training video." A member of the Working Dogs Division, Petty Officer Shaun Hogan, recalls the scene.
"Petty Officer Rocha and another junior sailor…were instructed to go into a classroom by Chief Michael Toussaint, who orchestrated the entire training. And Chief Toussaint asked them to simulate homosexual sex on a couch," Hogan says.
Next in the simulation, Hogan says a handler and his dog barged onto the scene, and that's when "one person…would sit up, kind of wipe off their mouth, the other would get up, and they would be fixing their fly."
Rocha says Toussaint bullied him, "telling me I needed to be more believable, act more queer, have a higher pitched voice, make the sounds and gestures more realistic...I didn't think I had a choice…It made me feel that I wasn't a human being, that I was an animal, rather."
Rocha says at the time, he had no gay friends, no male lovers, and wasn’t even fully out to himself about his sexuality. "The fact that I was starting to figure out that I was a homosexual, it was the most degrading thing I've ever experienced in my life." Still, eight thousand miles away from home, he was afraid to report the constant hazing. And Rocha was not the only one.
[See The Military Documents And Read More About Youth Radio's Investigation Into Hazing and Abuse.]
Youth Radio/Youth Media International (YMI) runs an award-winning newsroom. Recognition includes: The George Foster Peabody Award, the Alfred I. duPont Award/Columbia Award, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, a National Association of Black Journalists Award, four American Women in Radio and Television Awards, and the Public Radio News Directors Award. To read more youth news from around the globe and explore high quality audio and video features, visit Youth Radio .
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Not surprised. I was a civilian employee on a base for a couple of years. The harassment never ended and I know it was worse for gays and female military personnel.
I think too many of you have taken the tack that this all has to do with sex and gays exclusively. This is a problem in many areas, which includes hazing and general harassment not limited to gays or sex. This is a problem throughout our society. It starts even as early as grade school with cliques. and works it's way up to our colleges and hazing rituals. This is what some do as a Hierarchy ritual. It goes up the scale from the merely immature to the outright perverse. The problem is that in some way our whole society engages in it. Some are the perpetrators and some the victims of it. Until we acknowledge that and do something about changing it, it will continue to exist, both in the civilian world and in the Military.
It is thugs like this, disguised as soldiers that bring humilation to the thousands of men and women who serve their country with pride, honor, integrity and respect.
The US Armed Forces should do everything it can to punish these animals for disgracing themselves and their fellow soldiers.
As a female Marine in the late 1980's I was subjected to intolerable harassment being one of a few females in an all mostly male battalion. If I did not sleep around I was the Ice Queen if I slept around I was a whore - it was easier to find a boyfriend ASAP whether i wanted one or not so as not to be subjected to that behavior. I was at Parris Island when a group of female Marines living off base together were arrested tried and convicted for being in homosexual relationships. One year in Leavenworth for being gay, dishonorable discharge, life runied yet some of these women were decorated, outstanding Marines whose only fault was their sexual orientation.
In another incident a fellow female Marine was raped by her superior, she was so intimidated trhe rape went unreported and she lived in constant fear.
I counted the days before I finished my tour - I thought about making a career of it but I no longer wanted to be subjected to the sexist, macho mentality along with fearing for my safety.
Marines lost a good woman, I now have a PH D and I am probably better off.
In 2009 the culture of fear and sexual initimidation is still alive and well in the US military and they ought to be ashamed along with the Pentagon who should start holding them accountable for this intolerable behavior.
Most any gun carrying, uniform wearing organization is rife with this stuff. Repressed and angry idiots.
What is up with the military? I was in the army and my guys were just like the ones described in the story. AND they participated in group sex with each other but didn't consider THAT gay but would haze and bash other male troops for being too feminine. Bizarre. One time my sergeant asked me to go get a prostitute with him and somehow that turned into him wanting to do certain oral things to me. He recognized the shocked look on my face and followed his proposal with a quick "just joking". But after that he always came down hard on me for no reason at all.
Biggest secret of our military. Thanks for being honest about it. It must have been very difficult.
Yes, it's been there for a long time.
No it wasn't difficult for me. I wasn't abused because I was one of the crew. But I saw how other guys were abused to the point where they quit or went AWOL. I had to talk a buddy out of suicide because he couldn't handle it anymore. I was raised with a strong independent streak so although I was part of the crowd, I think that helped keep me from following the crowd. But I never felt comfortable enough to report any of these guys.
Whoa, the master-at-arms was telling the guy how to be gay and wanting them to play out some sort of gay fantasy? Sounds like someone should don't-ask-
I really think the entire Navy is in a state of confusion about its own sexuality. Either that or its higher ups are just monumentally stupid.
Way back when:
"In 1979, the United States Navy considered using "In the Navy", in a recruiting advertising campaign on television and radio. They contacted Belolo, who decided to give the rights for free on the condition that the Navy help them shoot the music video. Less than a month later, Village People arrived at the San Diego Naval base. The Navy provided them with a warship (USS Reasoner (FF-1063)), several aircraft, and the crew of the ship. The Navy later canceled the campaign."
I'd always wondered HOW they ever got to make that video! And what was the policy pre-DADT? Court-martial and shoot?
I am a HUGE gay rights supporter, and I hate discrimination of any kind. I don't think this was heterosexuals bashing homosexuals. I think this was severely repressed homosexuals taking their confusion and anger out on one of their own, because that person's homosexuality is a reflection of themselves.
I was in the Army and every few years there were always huge gay scandals in the Navy or Marines. They usually revolved around home videos. By huge scandals I refer to entire battalions making a film together. We always found this ironic in the army for two reasons, first because the Village People sang "In the Navy" and second because Marines were so hyper macho and anti-gay. In the Army we had plenty of gay men and women and even though it was not discussed everyone "just knew" and it was not really a big deal. I doubt that occurs in the Marines. I cannot speak for the Navy.
I would like to see open homosexuality legal in the services and possibly counseling for those that are confused about their sexuality or threatened by homosexuality.
glammajamma, why is it that every time heterosexuals behave this way, gay people come back with the same old line: "they are repressed homosexual
Tailhook II. The Navy is really covering itself with glory.
It's pretty much anything goes in Bah...hook
Not sure if you read the story pimpIP, apparently the Navy is not disputing the claims. While you don't personally believe Rocha, the Findings of Fact support his allegations. Glad YOU had a good time while serving. Can you comprehend the treatment of someone who doesn't participate in the debauchery ("hookers, drinking, whatever") that you witnessed by those who did participate?
You don't deny that FRAGGING occurs do you?
I once dated a guy - gay - back in the 80's who had been in the Navy and he described it as an unbelievably degrading experience.
Sorry to hear that....he shouldn't have joined then...the Navy has been around for a long time...1 bad experience doesn't make the Navy a bad organization to join...I am retired Navy...pre
Depends on your perspective. It is indeed a bad organization to join for those who have a bad experience after enlistment.
And your right "prejudice is prejudice no matter what..." Obviously Rocha is prejudiced against his Petty Officer. We all know how men in power have endured prejudice for far too long. It simply must stop!
If you really served in the Navy then you know about the Shellback initiation, with mock anal sex, mock bj's, whipping people with pieces of firehose dipped in salt water , so that salt gets into lacerations caused by those hoses, being forced to crawl on all fours on non-skid until your dungarees are red with blood, some forced to dress like women, bug juice lipstick, and forced to dance like a woman, having to pick an olive out of the King Shellbacks greased hairy belly-button while he smashes and rubs your face in his nastiness.
And lets not forget the all the whoremongering. I was an outcast in my work center because I would not use prostitute because I was a married man. I would do stupid things like PM on the electronics instead. There is good and bad in everything. The Navy is the best/worst job I ever had.
Heterosexuals - are you listening? Take a look in the mirror - this is only slightly different than what goes on all across America, in small towns and redneck states, in cities, everywhere - homosexuals are singled out, isolated, and brutalized by...who? By heterosexuals.
They do this to heterosexuals in the Navy as well, and it can every bit as disturbing for heterosexuals. This is not a problem directed at gays as much as its a sick iniation problem directed at newcomers There is no civilian comparison, because if there was, it would be prosecuted. Google Shellback initiation and read what happens to "Wogs", short for pollywogs. Refusal to participate in this homosexual based hazing usually ends up in being denied liberty call for weeks and becoming an outcast. I did refuse and told those who insulted me that if they wanted to beat me with a segment of firehose, they can try it on liberty call, but I would defend myself to the fullest extent. Nobody accepted my offer. Only one other sailor on my ship refused to participate out of 140.
You were very brave.
I'm heterosexual & would NEVER act like these guys in the Navy did. You're generalizing too much.
without having read any of that, I would have thought someone was sexually abusing the poor doggies...
Well, the dogs aren't talking, but that doesn't mean that doesn't happen too.
Self Respect is a result of behaving in a way that someone you respect would behave. If you harass and torture people, it undermines your self image. Would you respect someone who harasses and tortures? Every act is an act of self definition. You are the one who determines how you define yourself. If you behave in the manner described in this article you not only sabotage your own self respect, but that of everyone around you. I am ashamed that soldiers fighting for our country would behave like this.
'Would you respect someone who harasses and tortures? Every act is an act of self definition. You are the one who determines how you define yourself.'
You just described how the rest of the world feels about America since the Bush/Cheney admin.
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