Last week’s news that a panel of admirals has recommended that Navy Capt. Holly Graf be booted from the Navy for “cruelty” to her crew aboard the cruiser USS Cowpens led some to wonder if such attention would be focused on a man accused of similar behavior.
The USS George H.W. Bush -- 80-plus combat aircraft and one stapler / Navy photo
You betcha. From a strange story in Saturday’s Norfolk Virginia-Pilot about goings-on aboard the carrier USS George H.W. Bush:
Two witnesses testified Friday, one junior to [Senior Chief Petty Officer Kevin] Curtis and one senior. Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryan Edmonds, a master-at-arms and the lead investigator on the Bush, spent more than five hours describing Curtis’ treatment. He said Curtis, his boss, routinely threw him into a set of metal lockers in the office, so much so that they curved and warped. He said Curtis used pepper spray on him and other sailors, and that Curtis regularly used an office stapler to staple into his skin, mostly on his back and upper thigh. Curtis stapled him that way more than 100 times, Edmonds testified. “He would come into the investigations office, open it up longways, and staple me in the upper thigh,” Edmonds told the court.
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Staple.”