Sailors aboard the USS Florida, the second U.S. Navy submarine to integrate female service members, circulated sexually explicit lists of female crew members, according to records obtained by Military.com through the Freedom of Information Act.
Two sailors aboard the sub brought the lists to a superior officer months after integration of female members began in February 2018. The lists included rankings of the 32 women on the sub’s 173-person crew by attractiveness and sexual acts the compilers wanted to perform on them, according to the news outlet.
{mosads}In June, a senior adviser to Capt. Gregory Kercher, commander of the submarine’s Gold crew, alerted him about the list. Kercher reportedly ordered a search of the sub’s computer network to determine who had been accessing the list but did not open a full investigation or notify his command.
“Although he took some action in response to the list, there is no question that those minimal actions fell far short of expected standards and norms for an event of this magnitude,” Rear Adm. Jeff Jablon, then-commander of Submarine Group 10, wrote to a superior. Kercher was removed from his position last August over “loss of confidence in his ability to command.”
“Junior sailors do not feel safe knowing that the command has done ‘nothing’ to try to actively find out who has written or added to the list,” a 74-page investigation obtained by the news outlet states. At least one woman told investigators she thought the command “had forgotten about the list a long time ago.”
Vice Adm. Chas Richard, commander of U.S. Submarine Forces, told Military.com that after a thorough review, he was confident the situation was an isolated event.
“While I cannot guarantee that an incident such as this will never happen again, I can guarantee that we will continue to enforce our high standards of conduct and character in the Force,” he said. “I expect every submariner to treat one another with dignity and respect, and will hold our personnel accountable if they fall short of our standard.”