Female Sailors Forced To Carry Human Waste In Hazing Ritual

A Navy Commander and another top ranking enlisted sailor have been fired, as fallout continues to grow from a hazing ritual that forced female sailors to march with buckets of human waste.

Cmdr. Kenneth Rice, the executive officer of the destroyer USS Jason Dunham and Master Chief Petty Officer Stephen Vandergrifft, the ship’s command master chief, were both found guilty following two separate non-judicial hearings:

An investigation found that on Oct. 15, a chief petty officer ordered 19 enlisted women to take human waste out of two nonworking toilets and place it in buckets, the Navy said. The chief petty officer then marched 13 of them with the buckets down to the pier to dispose of the waste in portable toilets.

Lt. Cmdr. Reann Mommsen, a spokeswoman for U.S. Fleet Forces Command, told The Virginian-Pilot that the sewage could have been disposed of in functioning toilets aboard the ships and marching the women to the pier constituted hazing.

Proper equipment to clean toilets on the ship, which the women were not given, include rubber gloves and face shields.

According to a statement released by U.S. Fleet Forces Command, others have also been punished for the hazing incident:

The investigation found that Cmdr. Michael Meredith, USS Jason Dunham’s commanding officer, was initially unaware of the incident but took appropriate action after being informed Oct. 21. Other crew members assigned to USS Jason Dunham, who were involved in this incident, were also found in violation of UCMJ articles at non-judicial punishment or administratively sanctioned.