An investigation is currently underway to determine who secretly filmed female officers of a submarine crew while they were showering and changing clothes. CNN and several other media sources are reporting that tapes of at least three different female officers were filmed over the course of one year while they were using the submarine’s unisex bathrooms. The tapes were then reportedly passed around among crew members of the USS Wyoming.
Navy Vice Adm. M.J. Connor wrote in a letter obtained by CNN that an investigation is underway. “Incidents that violate the trust of our sailors go against every core value we hold sacred in our naval service,” he wrote. “We go to war together with the confidence that we can rely on each other in ALL circumstances, and incidents of sailors victimizing other sailors represent an extreme breach of that trust!”
Connor did not go into the exact details of the incident because the investigation is currently ongoing. “The Navy has successfully integrated women into our aviation, surface warfare and expeditionary warfare communities,” Connor also wrote in the letter. “It would be inaccurate to say that we achieved this without incident, but I can say unequivocally that we are a better force because of that integration.”
The USS Wyoming is one of the first submarines to allow women to serve. Females first began submarine training four years ago. The USS Wyoming is currently in deployment.
According to The Navy Times, “A ballistic missile sub typically has 15 officers and 140 enlisted on board, with unisex heads in officer country. When a woman is using the shower, for example, she puts up a sign to indicate the head is in use by a female officer and men must wait to enter until it’s unoccupied.”
