2.Many of the pics posted were taken by the women themselves or by others with their consent. One woman quoted in one article said she took nude photos of herself and sent them to her significant other while she was deployed. Someone got access to her phone without her knowledge or consent and posted them. Another woman had nude pics of herself on a private instagram and someone hacked into it. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/05/marine-corps-probing-nude-photos/98790930/ In another case, a civilian woman consented to her marine boyfriend taking the pics. She alleges that he posted them without her consent after they broke up. https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/articles/victims-speak-out
The fact that some of the photos were originally taken with consent will complicate this. I don’t mean morally—just legally.
“Officers won’t be difficult to charge, … as they are held to a higher standard and knew, or should have known, those photos were unauthorized. However, for prosecuting enlisted members … for conduct that is service discrediting or prejudicial to good order and discipline for simply viewing the photos, the government will likely have to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that they actually knew the photos were unauthorized.”
Is this an “enlisted men are t0o dumb to hold them accountable” excuse? Are the written standards for officers and enlisted that different?
A large part of it is because as commissioned officers, they’re supposed to be leaders responsible for everything happening under their command and to set a good example for enlisted personnel.
And yes, a part of that is derived from past history when commissioned officers tended to be mostly drawn from the aristocratic/upper/upper-middle classes whereas the enlisted soldiers were mostly drawn mostly from the lower SES classes.
A dishonorable discharge is a serious event in the military. Usually, if someone gets a dishonorable discharge, they spend some time at Leavenworth first.
Yes, I am reading that they are mocking the news reports and the attempts to shut the group down. And of course continuing to post the pics and comments.
Really disheartening. My general impression of Marines was always favorable – respectful kind of men that did the right thing. Think I am a bit naive sometimes.
Sure, there are wonderful people in our armed services but there is a whole lot with the culture that needs to change that goes way beyond this latest situation.
^^People at my company are always giving the Marines who work there grief for being not too intelligent. However, I think it’s a Navy-Marine competitive sort of thing, and actually the Marines are as smart as anyone.
It truly is disheartening. At this point, since these people know this has gone public and how bad it makes them look, I think they should really get hammered. Hard to plead innocent or that you didn’t know better, or that it was a big deal, or really I can’t think of any excuse that could fly. But I suspect many of the guilty parties are retired, so they think nothing can be done to them.
I think most of them are already hammered. Lol. This story will be around for a long time. They keep adding new Facebook groups, and other services are joining them too. Who knows what their motivation was…they seem willing to stand their ground even though their ringleaders will be caught and face serious trials. I agree that they seem oblivious to public opinion and are using very poor moral judgement. Don’t understand why there are so many of them. One Marine forum I visit doesn’t even mention this subject at all! Not even in the Women Marine section.
I think whoever is recreating the group page should face the severest penalties, because what they are doing at that point is basically flaunting military justice, and I think anyone who joins the new groups should be severely punished as well. You could argue that those who made the initial group and especially those who entered the initial group may not have realized how serious is (not saying I agree with that, especially for those who created and uploaded the photos), but those who move to the new groups are as guilty as those who recreated them and should have the book thrown at them, it becomes in a sense to me like someone who is caught in criminal activity and then does it again, they know what they are doing is illegal and they are taunting the legal authorities.
Ironic at least among Naval aviators as I recalled my older cousin, his Navy colleagues, and several forum postings mention Marine aviators are held to higher standards on exams/assessments necessary to get the gold wings or even join an aviation squadron after earning those wings compared to their Navy counterparts.
The minimal score on the final flight school assessment which would have allowed a Naval aviation candidate in the Navy branch who graduated flight school and join an aviation squadron may not guarantee a Marine aviation candidate graduation or if s/he earned his/her wings, allowance to continue into an aviation squadron.
Heard a few anecdotes of Marine aviation candidates who managed to earn their gold wings and yet, were forced by their service into another MOS because they failed to meet the higher Marine aviation threshold. If they had been in the Navy, they’d have allowed to join an aviation squadron.
