A U.S. Navy chief who wished the web so she and different enlisted officers may scroll social media, verify sports activities scores and watch films whereas deployed had an unauthorized Starlink satellite tv for pc dish put in on a warship and lied to her commanding officer to maintain it secret, in line with investigators.
Web entry is restricted whereas a ship is underway to take care of bandwidth for navy operations and to guard in opposition to cybersecurity threats.
The Navy quietly relieved Grisel Marrero, a command senior chief of the littoral fight ship USS Manchester, in August or September 2023, and launched info on components of the investigation this week.
The Navy Instances was first to report on the small print.
Marrero, a former info techniques technician, and senior leaders paid $2,800 for the Starlink Excessive Efficiency Package and had it put in in April 2023 previous to deployment of the San Diego-based Manchester, in line with the investigation.
She and greater than a dozen different chief petty officers used it to ship messages house and sustain with the information and acquired sign amplifiers throughout a cease in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, after they realized the wi-fi sign didn’t cowl all areas of the ship, in line with the investigation.
These concerned additionally used the Chief Petty Officer Affiliation’s debit card to repay the $1,000 month-to-month Starlink invoice.
The community was not shared with rank-and-file sailors.
Marrero tried to cover the community, which she referred to as “Stinky,” by renaming it as a printer, denying its existence and even intercepting a remark in regards to the community left within the commanding officer’s suggestion field, in line with the investigation.
Marrero didn’t reply to an AP e mail Friday in search of remark.
In March she was convicted at a court-martial the place she pleaded responsible to dereliction of obligation and offering false official statements to commanders, the Navy Instances reported. She was demoted to a chief petty officer after trial.
Marrero was relieved “due to a loss of confidence in her leadership abilities,” mentioned spokesperson Cmdr. Cindy Fields mentioned through e mail.
“Navy senior enlisted leaders … are expected to uphold the highest standards of responsibility, reliability and leadership, and the Navy holds them accountable when they fall short of those standards,” Fields mentioned.
Final week a commander of the destroyer USS John McCain was relieved of obligation after he was seen in a photograph firing a rifle with a scope mounted backward. The picture introduced the Navy appreciable ridicule on social media.
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