Sailors: Blame misplaced in Bahrain hazing case

As the Navy takes a fresh look at allegations of widespread hazing in a dog-handling unit in Bahrain, evidence is emerging that some lower-ranking sailors felt scapegoated for abusive behavior that allegedly was masterminded by the man in charge of the unit.

One of those sailors, Petty Officer 1st Class Jennifer Valdivia, committed suicide shortly after an initial investigation of the abuses was completed in 2007. She had been the unit's second in command.

A Navy investigation of her death, made public Tuesday, found that she "may have realized that she might be held responsible for at least some of the alleged misconduct."

Another member of the unit, Petty Officer 3rd Class Jake Wilburn, was ultimately booted out of the Navy with a dishonorable discharge after a fellow sailor, Petty Officer 3rd Class Joseph Rocha, complained of systematic harassment.

Rocha later left the Navy and gave up an appointment to the Naval Academy after telling a commanding officer in 2007 that he was gay and suffering from post-

traumatic stress brought on by the abuse.

A Navy investigation eventually turned up more than 90 instances of abuse in the unit, including sailors being force-fed dog treats, locked into a kennel and ordered to simulate oral sex.

Navy officials have not said whether anyone other than Wilburn was held accountable in the case, which came to light last month.

Wilburn, Rocha and another sailor, Petty Officer 1st Class Shaun Hogan, all say the ringleader of the abuse was Chief Petty Officer Michael Toussaint, who served as head of the unit.

Toussaint has since been promoted to senior chief and is now assigned to Oceana Naval Air Station's Dam Neck annex. Navy spokesmen said he is deployed and unavailable for interviews.

After reports of the abuse became public last month, Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations, ordered a review of what happened in the wake of the 2007 investigation.

That inquiry, conducted by Vice Adm. Michael Vitale, the commander of naval installations worldwide, has been completed and Roughead is reviewing it, Cmdr. Elissa Smith, a Navy spokeswoman, said Tuesday.

In addition, Smith said, a full-time commissioned officer has been assigned to the Bahrain kennel, one of the largest canine units in the Navy.

The findings of the Navy investigation into Valdivia's suicide were posted online Tuesday by Youth Radio, the California-based youth journalism program that first reported on the case last month.

Valdivia, 27, of Cambridge, Ill., was the Bahrain unit's Sailor of the Year in 2005 and was ranked the No. 1 petty officer 1st class in the command on her annual performance evaluation.

Hogan said Valdivia also appeared in one of the videotaped "training scenarios" that sailors were ordered to perform - she was handcuffed to a bed, covered only in a sheet.

In October 2006, Toussaint was transferred out of the kennel and Valdivia was placed in charge.

On Oct. 10, she was formally informed of the investigation into alleged hazing abuses in the unit. After walking out of the interview, according to the report, she appeared upset and remarked to a colleague, "They're accusing me."

Sometime in December, according to the report, she informed her chain of command that she intended to leave the Navy.

On Jan. 11, 2007, she was relieved of her duties and placed on "administrative legal hold" - meaning she was not allowed to transfer, take leave or separate from the Navy without command approval.

That evening, according to electronic records retrieved from her personal computer, Valdivia performed Internet searches of various suicide methods. The next day, she went to the Navy Exchange and bought a charcoal grill, a bag of charcoal, a starter kit and a bottle of vodka.

A friend who visited her in her living quarters that day said she appeared sad. When the friend mentioned that she was preparing farewell videos for some fellow sailors, Valdivia replied that if she ever had a farewell video, it should be accompanied by the song "Take This Job and Shove It."

That friend was the last known person to see her alive.

The following Monday, after a three-day weekend, Valdivia didn't report for work. The next day, Jan. 16, her body was found in an outbuilding attached to her residence, face down on the floor with a blanket over her head.

The grill, with burnt remnants of charcoal, was in one corner of the room. Near the body was a handwritten suicide journal.

Her fellow sailor Wilburn, in an interview, described an almost frat-house atmosphere at the command, which included about 30 sailors.

Junior sailors were ordered to sing songs at random ("I'm a Little Teapot" and "YMCA" were popular), sometimes from the roof and even occasionally in front of the base commanding officer. Before he was allowed to work with one of the dogs, Wilburn said, he was ordered to lie prostrate before the animal and ask for his blessing.

It was Wilburn's first tour as a dog handler, and he'd heard in training about what a tight-knit group the handlers were. "I guess this is just how it is," Wilburn remembered thinking. He took some solace that he wasn't the only one being hazed: "It was happening to everybody, not just me," said Wilburn, 24, of Springfield, Mo.

He also described being forced to bark and eat dog treats, being thrown into a dog kennel, and being hog-tied to a chair with duct tape.

Sailors quickly learned that the best way to avoid scrutiny was to mock someone else.

Toussaint was the main instigator, Wilburn said: "He was the one calling the shots, encouraging it."

Even when Valdivia took over, Wilburn said, the belittling, sometimes homophobic, comments continued.

Wilburn's favorite target was Rocha. One time, he said, he put a picture of two shirtless men on Rocha's computer.

"It wasn't anything that hadn't been done to me a hundred times," Wilburn said, adding that he'd once discovered in his locker a picture of men in thong underwear.

But Rocha had apparently had enough. He complained, and the next day, Wilburn was transferred out of the kennel.

He is appealing his discharge.

He doesn't deny harassing Rocha and said plainly that the two of them didn't get along. But he does feel he was singled out for behavior that was encouraged in the kennel.

Higher-ranking officers knew the command climate was bad, Wilburn said. After Toussaint left, Valdivia seemed to have trouble keeping the unit running smoothly.

"Once he left, everybody had been used to being ruled by fear and intimidation," Wilburn said. "She didn't know how to lead any other way. Everybody completely walked all over her, and she just lost control. No one paid her respect, so she tried to overcompensate."

Bill Sizemore, (757) 446-2276, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com

Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com