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Youth Radio Investigation: Sailors’ Abuse Kept Silent
Members of the U.S. Navy's Bahrain Military Working Dogs Division. Photo: Shaun Hogan
By Rachel Krantz
In the Persian Gulf, on the island of Bahrain, the U.S. Navy has a special division made up of bomb-sniffing dogs and the sailors who handle them. Developing trust between the dog and the handler is at the core of what makes canine detection work, as together, their job is to step into situations that can be deadly at any moment. However, that trust between the individual sailor and dog does not necessarily extend to the overall culture of the unit.
A Youth Radio investigation has found that between 2004 and 2006, sailors in the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain Military Working Dogs Division, or “The Kennel,” were subjected to an atmosphere of sexual harassment, psychological humiliation, and physical assaults.
It was inside that Bahrain kennel in July 2005 that Petty Officer Joseph Christopher Rocha, then 19 years old, says he was being terrorized by other members of his own division. “I was hog-tied to a chair, rolled around the base, left in a dog kennel that had feces spread in it.”
Rocha says that beginning six weeks into his deployment, he was singled out for abuse by his chief master-at-arms, Michael Toussaint, and others on the base, once Rocha made it clear he was not interested in prostitutes. “I was in a very small testosterone-driven unit of men,” Rocha says. “I think that’s what began the questioning-you know-‘Why don’t you want to have sex with her? Are you a faggot?’”
Youth Radio has conducted interviews and obtained documents released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) showing that the hog-tying episode was not the first or only case of harassment and abuse during Rocha’s deployment. In another incident cited in the documents, Rocha was forced to appear in a twisted “training video.” A member of the Working Dogs Division, Petty Officer Shaun Hogan, recalls the scene.
“Petty Officer Rocha and another junior sailor…were instructed to go into a classroom by Chief Michael Toussaint, who orchestrated the entire training. And Chief Toussaint asked them to simulate homosexual sex on a couch,” Hogan says.
Next in the simulation, Hogan says a handler and his dog barged onto the scene, and that’s when “one person…would sit up, kind of wipe off their mouth, the other would get up, and they would be fixing their fly.”
Rocha says Toussaint bullied him, “telling me I needed to be more believable, act more queer, have a higher pitched voice, make the sounds and gestures more realistic…I didn’t think I had a choice…It made me feel that I wasn’t a human being, that I was an animal, rather.”
Rocha says at the time, he had no gay friends, no male lovers, and wasn’t even fully out to himself about his sexuality. “The fact that I was starting to figure out that I was a homosexual, it was the most degrading thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.” Still, eight thousand miles away from home, he was afraid to report the constant hazing. And Rocha was not the only one.
Allegations of abuse across the unit escalated to a point that Navy officials enlisted Marine Corps Captain Brooks Braden to carry out an independent investigation. When Youth Radio reached Braden by phone, he said he didn’t have authorization to discuss “any investigations that may or may not have occurred.” There are a variety of opinions as to what specifically triggered the investigation of the Working Dogs Division. What’s not in question are the Findings of Fact highlighted in the Navy’s report.
Youth Radio has obtained a copy of both Braden’s investigation and the Navy’s Findings of Fact, which detail what happened to Rocha, in addition to incidents involving other service members. The FOIA documents have been redacted, so names are blocked out, but the actions listed include: throwing hard balls at the groin, spraying down uniformed personnel with multiple hoses, and a dog attacking a sex worker on base to the point of hospitalization.
(See the redacted investigation report.)
Youth Radio’s investigation includes interviewing four members of the Bahrain Working Dogs Division who served between 2004 and 2006. All say the tone was set by Chief Toussaint. Some sailors participated in the culture of hazing as victims, others as perpetrators, or in some cases both. They say the hazing continued because of a series of threats that were also integral to the culture of the unit, which not only tolerated abuse, but also invited it. To prevent them from speaking out, sailors Youth Radio interviewed say Toussaint would threaten to revoke their handlers’ licenses–taking away their dogs and their specialty in the Navy.
Another incident cited in the investigation found that two female service members were ordered to simulate sex with each other on video. According to the Findings of Fact, the women were handcuffed to a bed and appeared to be naked under a sheet.
(See the redacted Findings of Fact.)
For response from the Navy, investigator Brooks Braden and Naval officials in Bahrain pointed Youth Radio to Regional Public Affairs Officer Wendy Snyder. Though stationed in Naples, Italy, Lieutenant Commander Snyder confirmed that she is the official spokesperson for the base. She said in a phone call that she did not possess records for the investigation of the Military Working Dogs unit.
“Because it’s been more than two years, they are no longer available,” Snyder said. “Whether they’re shredded or destroyed, I don’t know.”
In response to the fact that Youth Radio has obtained a copy of the official findings of the investigation, Snyder said, “I know an investigation was held in 2007 regarding several instances that took place within the Military Working Dog Division of the Naval Security Force in Bahrain. I believe there were at least 16 individuals involved in allegations.”
Youth Radio asked what disciplinary actions Navy officials have taken against those responsible for the abuses against sailors at the Bahrain Working Dogs Division. “As far as I know,” Snyder said, “the investigation was completed, and the outcomes I don’t know of those individuals involved.” In a subsequent email, Snyder wrote that “personnel were held accountable” on the basis of the investigation, but she could not report specific disciplinary actions for the chief or his superiors.
Seeking a more specific answer, Youth Radio contacted the Navy’s Judge Advocate General, its Commander of Naval Installations and public affairs offices in Bahrain and state-side. All either weren’t available or refused to identify repercussions for those in the chain of command responsible for the Working Dogs Division abuse.
Youth Radio has obtained a copy of an email addressed to commanders distributed by Vice Admiral Bob Conway, who at the time of the investigation oversaw the management of Navy bases around the world, including Bahrain. In it, Conway states that hazing activities cited in the investigation “were encouraged, and in some cases instigated, by the senior enlisted leadership of the M.W.D. Division.” The email goes on to say the Navy “must hold those who engage in or enable hazing accountable.” While Conway continues that he might be “beating a dead horse,” he says “incidents” continue to occur, and that the Navy needs to identify those responsible “before something bad happens.” Service members who “don’t get it,” he says, “have no place in a leadership position.”
And yet, the Navy’s actions in the case of the Bahrain Working Dogs unit don’t line up with that directive. Since the investigation, Michael Toussaint, Chief over the unit during the abuse, was promoted to Senior Chief with the elite Naval Special Warfare Development Group in Dam Neck, Virginia.
Youth Radio made several attempts to contact Toussaint directly and was told by Special Warfare Command spokesman Major Sonny Leggett that Toussaint is in “austere locations” and unable to be reached.
As for the sailors from the Military Working Dogs unit, those Youth Radio interviewed who participated in the investigation have seen no public accountability within their military leadership. “I would like to see the people responsible for allowing this to go unpunished be held accountable,” says Rocha, “and in doing so setting an example throughout the armed forces that the values of honor, courage and commitment and are more than just a tagline.”
Sailors from the unit are struggling with the after-effects of the hazing and abuse they suffered or witnessed.
Joseph Christopher Rocha has been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder by Veterans Affairs.
Shaun Hogan says he is haunted by personal guilt.
“I was duty bound to protect those under my command; Petty Officer Rocha [and] several others. I have a lot of regret for not having spoken up at the time and intervening… and the reason I didn’t was because I felt threatened myself. Chief Toussaint had shown he will throw people out of the kennel. The last thing he did when he left was threaten me, that if he hears anything that doesn’t agree with him, he knows people, and he’ll seek to have my certification to handle dogs removed.”
A female member of the unit, who asked not to be named, says after her “horrible” deployment in Bahrain, she was ready to quit the military. Then she was transferred to a new base and decided to stay, determined to become a different kind of leader.
“How can we sit there and try to promote honor, courage and commitment when we have people like that in the military?” she said, “That’s why I hope I can make rank and make a difference somehow, in a small way, hopefully.”
As for Rocha, after his assignment in Bahrain, he chose a path towards officer training. But the hardest moment came when he decided to walk away from that, and with it, his lifelong dream of a military career. He says there are lots of reasons behind that painful choice: the lack of public accountability for the abuse he suffered in Bahrain; the fear that the abuse at his next deployment could be as bad or worse; and the vision of a life where he’d be lying to himself everyday about his sexuality and who he is, just to keep his job.
In the end, it only took three words.
“I am homosexual.”
Rocha’s official statement went on:
“I am proud of my service and had hoped that I’d be able to serve the navy and country for my entire career. However…I must be honest with myself, courageous in my beliefs and committed to my course of action. I understand this statement will be used to end my naval career.”
On the basis of that statement, Rocha was officially discharged by the U.S. Navy.
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