Hidden Camera discovered on USS Arlington

I didn’t give the author the time to check out his background but calling the head aboard ship a bathroom and restroom is ludicrous. I’ll read the article anyway.
 
I didn’t give the author the time to check out his background but calling the head aboard ship a bathroom and restroom is ludicrous. I’ll read the article anyway.

From the article bio:

JAMES CLARK IS A STAFF WRITER WHO COVERS VETERANS, CULTURE AND ENTERTAINMENT FOR TASK AND PURPOSE. A FORMER MARINE CORPS COMBAT CORRESPONDENT AND VETERAN OF THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN, YOU CAN FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER AT @JAMESWCLARK OR REACH HIM VIA EMAIL AT JAMES@TASKANDPURPOSE.CO
 
I guess he was never aboard ship.

Or he is writing to a different audience.
taskandpurposedotcom is a military centric site. Even civilians are capable of finding the definition of “head” as it applies to a navy ship. Surely a Marine writing about an event on a Gator knows to call it a head. Unless of course there are actual bathrooms on the Arlington.
 
I’m over the juournalistic malpractice so will comment on the discovery.

I’ve read about similar incidents throughout the years and always wonder how many cameras are out there and are not discovered. I know it’s hard to believe but I have a related personal story.

I was the once the LCPO of the Aerospace Physiology Training Unit (APTU) at a now closed NAS. I had tons of other duties and didn’t get over there often. A camera was discovered in the overhead vent in the female locker room. This space was not only for staff but aircrew who came for training, etc. One of the clinic (across the street) HMs noticed the camera and told her CPO. We called NCIS who did a quick investigation which revealed most of the unit Corpsmen were in on it. The LPO admitted everything but the knuckleheads who watched the video lawyered up and asked for a court martial. The HM1 went to Mast and after several weeks, the rest had their charges dropped. As it turns out, the only two women on video were clinic Corpsmen.
 
I have become gentrified after all these years, so I call it the "bathroom" in a residential setting and "restroom" in a commercial setting. It is apparently the price one pays for assimilation back into society.
Oddly enough, I just got back from visiting my DS at USNA - and when we're there - we all refer to it as the "head". It is a seamless crossover thing, which happens automatically.
If you ask me, that's weird.
 
My students constantly have to go to the bathroom. Odd we call it bathroom in a public school building since there are no bath tubs. Restroom is also baffling as the room is not intended for rest. Although, I will occasionally sit a few minutes longer than needed and have been known to rest my eyes a bit. Sailors call that doing PMS on my eyelids.
 
I work in a professional building. The restrooms all have occupancy sensors which turn off the lights when they stop sensing motion (probably after 10 minutes or so). More than once, I have gone in there and activated the lights by entering, when I realize there's some loser in one of the stalls ostensibly playing games on his cell phone in the dark. Weird doesn't quite describe that one.

Same restroom - once I saw a guy who had come out of a conference room in the building with a cookie from lunch. I know this, because when I walked in, this savage was on the throne next to the urinal and his cookie was sitting on top of his notepad, which was laying on the tile floor. So I walk up to the urinal and de-water myself, wondering how much atomized urine was falling on his cookie. It was a particularly full day, with really exceptional hydraulic action.
 
I work in a professional building. The restrooms all have occupancy sensors which turn off the lights when they stop sensing motion (probably after 10 minutes or so). More than once, I have gone in there and activated the lights by entering, when I realize there's some loser in one of the stalls ostensibly playing games on his cell phone in the dark. Weird doesn't quite describe that one.

Same restroom - once I saw a guy who had come out of a conference room in the building with a cookie from lunch. I know this, because when I walked in, this savage was on the throne next to the urinal and his cookie was sitting on top of his notepad, which was laying on the tile floor. So I walk up to the urinal and de-water myself, wondering how much atomized urine was falling on his cookie. It was a particularly full day, with really exceptional hydraulic action.

Eww

And

Eww
 
Ok, much as I usually get a kick out of the quirky diversions here into salty head humor, the original post documented something that is pretty darn invasive and infuriating. Why would anyone do that, knowingly invade and possibly exploit privacy by sharing it, to their shipmates?

All these steps forward, and trust and feeling part of a team can be shattered in an instant. I put up with a lot of crap way back when, and here we are in the 21st century, and it’s still going on. Much, much, much, much less, I grant you. And it’s usually just a few boneheads. And the right things usually happen now.

Just a few years ago, a USNA sponsor daughter called, shaken and upset. This happened to her on her afloat unit (I’m being deliberately vague). Her sailors, that she worked hard to support, who she thought worked together as a mutually trust-worthy team, who had won praise from the CO and XO, who she enjoyed being around, and treated with respect and appreciation - some of her sailors had rigged a remote feed in the shower. Her images were shared. Most of them knew about it, even if not active participants. It was discovered when one of her sailors went to another unit, felt guilty, and went to the NCIS. She continued to work in the same unit while the investigation was active. Her XO noted “well, it’s not like you were sexually assaulted.” Her CO said “Just forget about it and put it behind you.” Some of her peers kidded her about being a “movie star.”

She was heart-broken by both the event, the aftermath, and some people’s reactions. She called us before she called her parents, nearly speechless with grief and rage, because she knew we had heard just about everything over the years. It broke my heart to hear her, and some of the same feelings flooded back to me from stuff during my career. I had to hand the phone to DH, who handled it with his usual calm and compassion. She continued to serve with distinction, achieving many firsts in her field, but has left the Navy. Too deep a scar.
 
Yes. Agreed. Sorry about the thread derail.

My initial reaction was utter disbelief as to why anyone would want to do that. I can assure you that if I were in charge, heads would roll.
@Capt MJ - the story about your Sponsor kid is awful. Her C.O. was an idiot.
 
Back
Top