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The Navy is disciplining astatine slightest 2 members of SEAL Team 4 aft racist memes, including 1 depicting slavery, were shared successful a Signal chat to a Black chap SEAL, 2 sources acquainted with the concern told CBS News.
The memes were initially shared respective years ago, but resurfaced precocious aft the Black sailor who was targeted reported them. The SEAL who reported the memes, citing racism and bullying, antecedently had his Trident — which is fixed to SEALs — revoked, but the Navy has since reinstated it, the sources said.
The memes were developed by 2 enlisted SEALs based successful Virginia who present look non-judicial punishment and punitive letters successful their files, The Associated Press reported. Both actions tin beryllium career-ending, oregon tin effect successful demotions oregon nonaccomplishment of pay.
Platoon and squad leaders are besides facing administrative actions, including disciplinary letters successful their files, aft a probe recovered they did not adequately code the sailor's concerns astir racist behaviour and that the determination to revoke his qualifications was flawed, according to The AP.
"This was a precise shocking lawsuit of explicit and repeated racist memes directed astatine our lawsuit successful a platoon-wide substance thread," the sailor's lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, told The AP. "They modified his look successful photos to look similar a monkey and portrayed him arsenic a chained enslaved connected a enslaved ship, among others."
Parlatore praised Rear Adm. Jamie Sands, caput of Naval Special Warfare, and his unit for taking swift enactment to "investigate, reverse the antagonistic repercussions that our lawsuit received, and determination to clasp radical accountable."
A spokesperson for Naval Special Warfare Command told CBS News connected Tuesday that the Navy "investigated superior allegations of unprofessional behaviour wrong 1 of our commands" and "accountability actions are ongoing."
"We are dedicated to fostering a clime of dignity and respect, and aft conducting a thorough and just investigation, we volition clasp anyone recovered liable of misconduct accountable," the spokesperson said.
A defence authoritative told The AP that the sailor filed much than a twelve circumstantial complaints astir racist behaviour and astir fractional were substantiated. As leaders began to look into the complaints, a 2nd sailor — who is White — besides complained astir bullying by different platoon members. That amplified the broader concerns astir the bid clime and the aboriginal findings of enactment failures.
This is the latest important probe into behaviour issues and bid failures astatine Naval Special Warfare Command. And it underscores radical concerns that are not caller to the peculiar warfare leaders.
Commando forces crossed the services — peculiarly the officers — thin to beryllium acold little divers than the subject arsenic a whole. Leaders successful caller years person tried to pull a wider array of recruits successful bid to make a much divers force.
Those efforts, however, could beryllium threatened now, arsenic the Trump medication and Defense Department leaders person made it a precedence to extremity diversity, equity and inclusion programs crossed the subject and the authorities arsenic a whole.
As of March 2021, a afloat 95% of each SEAL and combatant-craft unit officers were White and conscionable 2% were Black, according to Naval Special Warfare statistic provided to The AP. The enlisted ranks were lone somewhat much diverse.
Those numbers are starkly antithetic from the wide Navy population, wherever astir 40% of the enlisted unit and 24% of its officers are non-White.
Acting Pentagon property caput Kingsley Wilson told CBS News: "Secretary [Pete] Hegseth's enactment to escaped the Department of Defense from the erstwhile administration's divisive DEI docket is captious to ensuring that racism has nary spot successful our Armed Forces. Giving our work members preferential attraction connected the ground of contention —in usurpation of national instrumentality —is the precise explanation of racism. Secretary Hegseth is refocusing our subject connected merit and putting quality earlier immutable characteristics again."
Other caller investigations besides recovered grooming and bid problems.
Last October, a highly captious review by the Navy recovered that 2 Navy SEALs drowned arsenic they tried to ascent aboard a vessel carrying illicit Iranian-made weapons to Yemen due to the fact that of glaring grooming failures and a deficiency of knowing astir what to bash aft falling into deep, turbulent waters.
And successful 2023, a Navy probe into the decease of a SEAL campaigner a twelvemonth earlier concluded that the grooming programme was plagued by wide failures successful aesculapian care, mediocre oversight and the usage of performance-enhancing drugs that person accrued the hazard of wounded and decease to those seeking to go elite commandos.
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