Navy recruits humiliate a quiet servicewoman at breakfast—then one sailor recognizes the yellow-and-black patch on her sleeve
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Chapter 7 / 27
Chapter 7 - Why I was at that command My assessment team had been sent there for reasons larger than Jake Thompson.
Three anonymous complaints had been submitted over the previous four months.
Not allegations of major violence.
Something harder to quantify.
Senior trainees humiliating junior ones.
Food taken.
Bunks dumped.
Personal items hidden.
People being ordered to perform small degrading tasks under the label of “earning toughness.”
One complaint said an instructor had laughed while watching.
Another said:
If you complain, they tell you the fleet will be worse.
The command had asked for an outside review before the pattern became something larger.
I was not undercover.
I had not sat alone waiting to bait recruits.
May you like
I was simply eating breakfast before interviews began.
Sometimes systems reveal themselves without needing help.
Related Stories
Chapter 8 - The recruit nobody talked about The fourth recruit at Jake’s table was Owen Price.
Chapter 9 - Petty Officer Cole Cole was thirty-six.
Chapter 10 - My own history At nineteen, I was not calm.
Chapter 11 - Jake’s fatherJake’s father was not an admiral.
Chapter 12 - My mistake with Noah Noah found me outside the training building two days later.
Chapter 13 - The fire report The breakfast-hall fire had nothing to do with Jake.
