This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Navy

  • A GDMA Scandal “Scorecard”

    For anyone interested, here’s a short list of those who’ve been named as involved in the Glenn Defense Marine Asia, Ltd – AKA GDMA – scandal.

    CDR Jose Luis Sanchez, USN – pleaded guilty earlier this month to bribery charges. He was the subject of yesterday’s TAH article regarding the GDMA scandal.

    John Bertrand Beliveau II, NCIS Supervisory Special Agent – pleaded guilty to bribery and conspiracy charges in December 2013. Beliveau admitted to providing GDMA information on NCIS investigations into their business dealings.

    PO1 Daniel Layug, USN – pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery charges in May 2014. Layug was providing classified ship movement schedules to GDMA officials as well as competitor pricing information.

    Alex Wisidagama – former executive at GDMA and cousin of the GDMA CEO, Leonard Glenn Francis, pleaded guilty in May 2014 to participating in a scheme whereby GDMA grossly overcharged the US Navy for costs associated with services performed during port calls. In one such visit – by the USS Mustin to Laem Chabang, Thailand, in 2011 – the overcharges appear to have totaled $1.5M for a single port call.

    Edmond A. Aruffo, LCDR, USN (Retired) – pleaded guilty in July 2014 to participating in GDMA’s scheme to overcharge grossly the USN for costs associated port calls.

    So far, two other individuals – Leonard Glenn Francis, CEO of GDMA, and CDR Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz, USN, have submitted and maintained “not guilty” pleas to bribery and conspiracy charges associated with the scandal.  Both are accused of bribery and conspiracy.  (Interestingly, Misiewicz is a former CO of the USS Mustin.)  He was indicted on seven additional charges recently – after CDR Sanchez pleaded guilty.

    Stay tuned.  This one continues to seem . . . interesting.

  • Navy Commander Pleads Guilty to Accepting Bribes

    Yesterday, CDR Jose Luis Sanchez pleaded guilty in Federal court to the crime of accepting bribes. He was the fifth individual and second member of the US Navy to plead guilty in connection with the Glenn Defense Marine Asia, Ltd. (AKA GDMA) scandal.  Prosecutors have alleged that this scandal was based on insider information and allowed GDMA to overbill the US Navy for support for years, costing Uncle Sam at least $20 million.

    Per this Fox News article,

    Sanchez admitted taking bribes valued between $30,000 and $120,000 from 2009 to 2013, including a prostitute, $7,500 to travel from Asia to the United States and five days at Singapore’s luxury Shangri-La Hotel, according to a 24-page plea agreement. In exchange, he provided classified Navy ship and submarine schedules and other internal information to Leonard Glenn Francis, chief executive of a Singapore-based company that provided services to vessels at ports.

    The other member of the USN to plead guilty so far – Petty Officer (precise rank not specified) Daniel Layug – also admitted to providing classified Navy shipping schedules to Francis.

    Francis – termed “Fat Leonard” by his confidants – was previously arrested (Sep 2013) on charges connected to the scandal. He has pleaded not guilty.

    Sanchez was arrested as part of the same bribery scandal for which CDR(P) Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz – who Jonn’s previously written about here at TAH – was arrested about 16 months ago. Misiewicz was arrested on charges related to his own separate dealings with Leonard.  After being arrested, Misiewicz pleaded not guilty charges of conspiracy to commit bribery.

    Sanchez’s guilty plea yesterday included a five-page addendum that remains under seal. Perhaps coincidentally, CDR Misiewicz was indicted yesterday on seven (7) additional counts related to the scandal.  It does not appear that he’s yet entered a plea regarding the new charges against him.

    Sanchez is facing a maximum of 20 years in Federal prison. He’s currently out on bail awaiting sentencing. He apparently needs his own assets to pay his lawyers, so he’s convinced his mother and sister to back his bail bond with their assets.

    Personally, I hope the courts absolutely body-slam every one of these guys damned hard when they’re convicted.  To wit:   a minimum of 5 or 7 years hard time for each, and preferably closer to the max sentences allowed under law.

    That particularly goes for any military or Federal civilian personnel involved.  These people were in positions of public trust; they betrayed that trust for a pittance. I think each needs at least 5 years – and preferably more – to reflect on both their sh!tbaggery and the pittance they received for selling-out Uncle Sam’s interests.

    Was it worth it, assholes? Was it?

    Don’t answer right away. You can give us your answer when you get out of prison – if you ever do.

    It’s OK by me if you die behind bars. But that’s not my call.

  • That Global Force for Good

    That Global Force for Good

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    The Washington Post reports that the US Navy is involved in grim job of recovering the bodies from that AirAsia Flight 8501;

    The USS Sampson, a destroyer, is in the Java Sea southwest of Borneo. The ship, which has 330 U.S. troops aboard, recovered two bodies around 3 p.m. Thursday, and more since, officials said. It was running 24-hour search operations using two MH-60R search-and-rescue helicopters, radar, sonar and binoculars.

    Reuters released a few photographs of one of the helicopters as it delivered remains to the Indonesian government, which asked for U.S. help. They were returned to an airport in Pangkalan Bun in Central Kalimantan, which is just north of the Java Sea.

    According to the Navy;

    “Sampson will remain on station as long as the Indonesian government feels they are providing useful assistance,” said Capt. Christopher Budde, operations director for U.S. 7th Fleet.

    “The Indonesian government and Indonesian Rescue Coordination Center have done an outstanding job in very quickly organizing this multi-national search effort,” said Budde. “We are preparing additional equipment and assets in case the Indonesian government requests them, but they are doing a tremendous job and additional U.S. Navy assistance may be more than they require.”

    Authorities in the region continue to lead the search and recovery effort. The U.S. Navy is working closely with the government of Indonesia to identify additional surface or airborne capabilities to best assist.

  • Herbert G. Claudius awarded Legion of Merit 72 years late

    Herbert G. Claudius awarded Legion of Merit 72 years late

    Herbert Claudius

    According to Stars & Stripes, Herbert G. Claudius was awarded the Legion of Merit with a Valor device for sinking a German U-boat off the coast of Louisiana on July 30, 1942;

    Minutes after the passenger ship SS Robert E. Lee was torpedoed and sunk by U-166 45 miles south of the Mississippi River Delta, Claudius’ crew spotted a periscope in the area. After Claudius ordered depth charges fired, the crew saw an oil slick in the area where the weapons were dropped, according to historical accounts of the incident. This was strong evidence that the submarine had been severely damaged or destroyed.

    But when Claudius submitted his after-action report, the Navy doubted his account because he and his crew had not yet received anti-submarine training, according to National Geographic, which is making a documentary about the affair.

    According to records, USS PC-566, Claudius’ craft had been launched only a few months before in March, 1942. But, it’s good to see that the military hasn’t changed – you’re a racist until you get your EO training and a sexist until you get you sexual harassment training. And you can’t kill subs until they train you to do it.

    But an oil company found the wreck of U-166 while searching for drilling opportunities in 2001 and about 140 miles from where folks had been searching for the submarine.

  • 12 Sailors involved in shower videos

    12 Sailors involved in shower videos

    Earlier this month, we talked about the sailor who was busted for making shower videos of female crew members of the USS Wyoming, an Ohio-class submarine. Fox News reports that 11 more sailors were involved in the incident;

    U.S. Navy sailors are suspected of viewing secretly recorded videos of female shipmates undressing in a submarine shower, the Navy Times reports.

    The scandal, exposed early this month by the Navy Times, has impaired the Navy’s gender-integration effort begun four years ago.

    The investigation report reveals that at least one sailor has been implicated in the production and distribution of the videos, while 11 others are suspected of watching the tapes and failing to report them to their commanders.

    From the Navy Times;

    All of those implicated are petty officers, most of whom had seen or known about the videos but did not report it, said a senior Navy official familiar with the investigation. The official emphasized that only one sailor, a second class petty officer, is believed to have recorded and distributed them using a smart phone.

    “This was not 11 guys, each with different” cameras, said the source. “It was really one guy doing the videography piece and then sharing it with other people.”

    “We think the 7 videos were shot with a cell phone,” he added.

    I think Stevie Wonder said he saw this coming. But, hey, at least the social engineers got women on boats, right? That’s what counts.

  • Foreign-Born Civilian Navy Engineer . . . and Apparent Spy

    Seems that a foreign-born, 35-year-old engineer has been arrested by the FBI. The charge; attempting to provide design and vulnerability information concerning the Navy’s most advanced carrier currently under construction to a foreign government.

    It gets even better. The guy apparently immigrated and became a citizen fairly recently – he appears to have begun the process of attaining US citizenship in 2007. But it looks like he must have worked fast; he apparently was granted a security clearance fairly recently.

    Luckily, the “foreign agent” to whom the guy provided the info he’d obtained was an FBI undercover agent. So perhaps we dodged a proverbial bullet here.

    Unfortunately, the bastard isn’t facing the death penalty. He’s facing two charges, each of which have a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison. That’s . . . unfortunate. IMO, he should be looking at hanging – but I’d have settled for a needle instead.

    Both Fox News and the Washington Times have articles giving more details. They’re IMO worth reading.

    Interestingly, I’m not finding much else about this in the rest of the media. I wonder if the fact that the guy was born in Saudi Arabia – and was trying to provide the information to the government of Egypt – might have something to do with that?

    I guess spying on behalf of an Islamic nation must not be news. And that a recently-naturalized individual from a country with a huge Islamic extremist population applying for a security clearance during a time when we’re at war with Islamic extremists doesn’t merit enhanced scrutiny. Even if he’s from the country that, well, provided almost all of the terrorist bastards that perpetrated the 9/11 attacks.

    I swear, at times I think some folks working for the Five Sided Asylum really are crazy. Or perhaps simply have the intellect of a rock with lips.

  • Sailor videos females showering on sub

    Sailor videos females showering on sub

    Mark sends us a link to Fox News which reports that an unnamed second class petty officer (also known as “dead sailor walking”) has been caught videotaping female sailors while they showered aboard the USS Wyoming – the first Ohio-class submarine to have women in the crew.

    Navy officials are investigating a 24-year old male sailor who is accused of making and distributing the videos, according to a Nov. 14 incident report circulated among the service’s senior leaders, according to Navy Times, which first reported the story.

    […]

    The videos, recorded over a one year period, are believed to show at least three female officers while showering or undressing, according to a source who has spoken to one of the alleged victims, Navy Times reported.

    The Naval Criminal Investigative Service, or NCIS, is investigating the incidents in question, according to the incident report, Navy officials said.

    Just to be clear, this is not acceptable behavior anywhere in the world, and this sailor is going to be justifiably crucified. I’m sure he did it because of authority issues, it’s not like there isn’t enough spank bait on the internet already and if women showering was his thing, I’m pretty sure someone somewhere made a video like that already for his enjoyment. No, this was because he didn’t like at least one of the personalities in the shower.

  • Honorable CPO no more

    Honorable CPO no more

    Bill Cosby honorable CPO

    I’ve always like Bill Cosby’s comedy – my parents had a record album that we wore down to a sliver of vinyl playing it over and over again while we chuckled away at his antics and those of his brother Russell and the rest of the gang.

    Now, his reputation has been sullied by his supposed sexual abuse of women years ago. Well, the Navy had made him an honorable Chief Petty Officer in 2011 and they think that he doesn’t deserve that honor now in light of these allegations according to MSN;

    The Navy is revoking Bill Cosby’s title of honorary chief petty officer, saying allegations of sexual abuse made against the comedian are serious and conflict with the Navy’s core values.

    Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Master Chief Petty Officer Michael Stevens made the announcement Thursday in a statement.

    Cosby enlisted in the Navy in 1956 and served four years as a hospital corpsman before being honorably discharged in 1960 as a 3rd Class Petty Officer. The honorary title was presented to Cosby in 2011.