Navy Confirms Just One More Chief, Officer Punished for Illicit Wi-Fi Network on Warship

The Navy said Friday it has punished just one additional chief petty officer -- out of 18 sent to Captain's Mast -- and an officer from the USS Manchester more than a year after it caught a group of chief petty officers running an illicit Wi-Fi network aboard the ship.

The acknowledgment from the Navy, which comes after the ship's command master chief was sent to a special court-martial, suggests the majority of the sailors involved avoided significant punishments, despite concern over the incident. The commander of the Manchester's squadron, Capt. Douglas Meagher, said in the investigation results that he had "never seen such heinous and egregious conduct by [a] command master chief and an entire CPO Mess."

Meagher ordered more than a dozen chief petty officers and one officer to receive non-judicial punishments for their role in the Wi-Fi network. Cmdr. Cindy Fields, a spokeswoman for the commander of Naval Surface Forces, confirmed to Military.com in a statement Friday that 18 chiefs and senior chiefs and one officer did, in fact, go to Captain's Mast.

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However, Fields' statement on the actual punishments offered few details. She said that one chief petty officer received a "letter of instruction" and the officer received a "non-punitive letter of concern." Citing the Privacy Act, Fields said the Navy wouldn't release any other details on what, if any, punishments were meted out.

Between the investigation and Fields' update, the publicly acknowledged sum total of punishments meted out for the Wi-Fi system was four administrative letters and a loss of a future command for the Manchester's commanding officer.

Additionally, there was no evidence to suggest the one-time command master chief who ran the operation and was sent to a special court-martial had been removed from the service.

In the run-up to their deployment in April 2023, the chief petty officers of the Gold crew of the littoral combat ship, led by Command Master Chief Grisel Marrero, bought a Starlink satellite internet system and set it up on the ship, according to the Navy investigation. The sailors then ran a secret internet network aboard the ship while it was deployed -- until it was finally discovered in August 2023.

Navy investigators discovered that the Chief's Mess -- a term typically used to refer to all chief petty officers aboard a Navy ship or the fleet -- worked to conceal the system "with sophistication" by lying to the ship's commander and executive officer, renaming the Wi-Fi network so that it simply looked like a printer, and hiding sailor comments to the commander about the network, the investigation found.

Once details started to leak out, the Chief's Mess altered records to make it look like they only used the system when the ship was in port, and eventually they tried to have a senior chief petty officer be a "sacrificial party to accept responsibility" for the whole plan.

Both a Navy Criminal Investigative Service and the Navy-run investigation followed.

The Navy Times was the first to report on the plot and investigation results.

The whole plot was made "heinous and egregious," as Meagher said, by the fact that it was done by the entire cadre of senior enlisted sailors aboard the ship.

Navy chief petty officers occupy a special role in the service. They collectively have spent decades cultivating the notion within the service that they are repositories of knowledge and tradition for the fleet, and set the standard by which all sailors should abide.

The Chief Petty Officer's Pledge notes that a chief should "set the example" and "establish the standards of performance."

"A chief not only sets the standards but is also the enforcer of standards," Master Chief Noel Navidad said in a 2021 Navy story on the meaning of a chief petty officer.

19 Chiefs Ordered to Non-Judicial Punishment

After the investigation concluded, Meagher laid out an aggressive plan for accountability for the chief petty officers that often went beyond what investigators recommended.

For being the ringleader, Command Master Chief Marrero -- who had been selected but not formally promoted to master chief -- lost her promotion and senior enlisted leader qualification.

Navy court records show she was then taken to court-martial and charged with dereliction of duty, making false statements and obstruction of justice. She was found guilty on all three charges and demoted from senior chief to chief petty officer in March.

While Meagher noted in his letter that the Navy should consider booting Marrero out of the service after any other punishments the Navy deemed appropriate, there is no evidence to show that she has been separated from the service.

The investigation noted that 17 chiefs -- 16 from the Manchester crew and one chief from an embarked helicopter squadron -- paid for the unauthorized internet. Two more knew about it but didn't pay in. Thus, it appears that Meagher ordered 19 chiefs in all to be subject to non-judicial punishment.

While it is not immediately clear why the total Fields' offered Friday differs from the figures in the investigation, she noted that her numbers do not include Marrero.

The recommendation from investigators was that only 11 of those chief petty officers should be punished with "letters of instruction" -- a note in their service record that would have likely rendered them unpromotable but would allow them to continue serving.

Instead, Meagher ordered that "All E-8/E-7 who knew of, used, payed [sic] for or helped conceal the unauthorized equipment will be notified for Nonjudicial Punishment."

For a chief petty officer, broadly, a mast from an officer like Meagher could mean a maximum of 60 days of being restricted to the ship, 45 days of extra duty and two months at half pay. They cannot be demoted, but they can receive a reprimand such as a "letter of instruction."

However, given Fields' statement that only one chief petty officer received a "letter of instruction," it appears that the result of Meagher's intervention and insistence on sending everyone to non-judicial punishment was ultimately less punishment, not more.

While the investigators argued that "no chief, other than [Marrero], should be notified for administrative separation," Meagher overruled them, saying the decision should be made after "any appropriate accountability action by the command."

It is not known whether any of the 18 chiefs that the Navy confirmed as going to mast are now being processed for separation.

Meagher also said he intended to host a "CPO Mess recalibration summit" to "right the rudder of this Mess." He noted that the summit would determine if he should "redistribute" the entire Manchester Chief's Mess "as the trust and confidence in this group of leaders, if held intact, may be unrecoverable."

Military.com asked the Navy if this "redistribution" occurred, but we did not receive an answer.

'Wholly Substandard'

As the Chief's Mess was running the illegal network aboard the ship, the investigation noted that two officers outside of the ship's top commanders were presented with clues that something was off.

Both of their names are redacted in the investigation.

On Aug. 15, 2023, about four months after the Chief's Mess first set up the network, the ship was slated to have the Starshield system installed.

Ironically, that system is also run by Starlink to provide satellite-based internet, but it is specifically designed for the military.

That day, a sailor whose name is redacted in the report came up to the ship's operation's officer and "mentioned the Starshield installers may find something that shouldn't be there," but "no additional question [sic] were asked by [the officer] regarding that comment."

Investigators later said that after receiving this "unusual warning," the operations officer should have been prompted "to inquire more, and conduct a review."

Then, a few days later, on Aug. 18, the ship's combat system's officer went outside and seemed to have finally spotted the Starlink antenna that the chiefs had installed in mid-April.

It wouldn't be until nearly a week later, Aug. 24, that the ship's commander, Cmdr. Colleen Moore, would learn about the discovery of the dish when the operations officer, now having heard secondhand about the antenna discovery, walked into her office to discuss the matter.

After that conversation, Moore called the combat systems officer into her stateroom, and he conceded that he knew about the antenna but didn't tell her because he was discussing it with mentors.

Investigators noted that "while additional time to gather more facts could have been appropriate, waiting a week to inform the CO is wholly substandard."

With all the redactions, it is not clear what specific punishments either the combat systems or operations officer received as a result of their inaction. Meagher's letter noted that one sailor would be heading to non-judicial punishment "for the dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming an officer observed in this report," and based on Fields' statement, the outcome was a "non-punitive letter of concern."

The maximum punishment an officer can receive at non-judicial punishment from a captain like Meagher is 30 days of restriction to a ship or base and a reprimand or admonition.

Another sailor, who investigators said should be verbally counseled "regarding forceful backup and a questioning attitude" had that punishment upgraded to a "non-punitive letter of concern" by Meagher.

Again, while letters of concern or other admonitions are simply notes in an officer's service record, they can often serve as an effective end to a career since they make promotion extremely challenging.

Meagher spared Moore the full brunt of punishment, and it appears that he allowed her to serve out the remainder of her time as commander of the Manchester's Gold Crew. But he did issue her a "Letter of Instruction" and ordered that her recommendation to command a larger Navy ship be pulled.

Meagher noted that as commander, she not only faced "abhorrent misconduct and conspiracy within the Chief's Mess" but was dealing with a new and temporary executive officer following the relief of their predecessor for the "commission of a serious offense."

In his letter, Moore's boss said that as he considered her situation, he reflected on his own experiences when he was her rank and, as a result, "[tempered] my expectations on that which is expected of an officer at that stage in their career when met with these obstacles to success."

"In my assessment, CDR Moore is capable of redemption and should be afforded an opportunity to recover from this event in a post CDR Command afloat or ashore Flag staff or appropriate equivalent," Meagher wrote.

Related: Navy Chief Demoted After Installing Unauthorized Satellite Dish on Warship to Access Internet