Senior chief receives Silver Star to top 22-year career

Senior Chief Petty Officer Michael Toussaint, a Navy dog handler, was awarded the Silver Star this week for "great battlefield courage" during a special operations raid in Afghanistan two years ago.

Receiving the nation's third-highest military honor marks the bittersweet end to a 22-year career marred by a hazing scandal that erupted long after he'd left his position as kennel master at the Navy's base in Bahrain in 2006.

Toussaint was already in Afghanistan, serving with a Navy SEAL team, when the allegations and the Navy's initial investigation came to light.

On July 9, 2009, Toussaint and his combat assault dog, Remco, were on a mission targeting a group of al-Qaida and Taliban leaders when they were hit with a barrage of small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. Toussaint's dog was mortally wounded, and a Navy SEAL on the mission was badly hurt.

According to the citation and an eyewitness account, Toussaint was undeterred. Under heavy fire, he charged within 15 feet of two enemy fighters and killed both of them.

"His actions ended the engagement," the citation reads, "allowing his teammates to provide lifesaving combat casualty care to his wounded team leader."

Around the same time as that battle, Toussaint's name surfaced in media reports about alleged hazing and harassment in Bahrain.

No one was charged in the investigation, but the sailor who took over the kennel after Toussaint's departure - Petty Officer 1st Class Jennifer Valdivia - killed herself after learning she would be implicated in the probe.

After details about what allegedly transpired came to light - including sailors who said they were tied up and forced to eat dog treats and ordered to participate in training scenarios that included simulated sexual encounters - the Navy censured Toussaint and announced he would be retired at a lower pay grade.

Toussaint successfully fought that in a two-day retirement board hearing in Norfolk in early 2010. Some of his accusers testified about their alleged mistreatment at the hearing. Cross-examination revealed that some of the allegations were exaggerated.

Also taking the witness stand was Navy SEAL Jimmy Hatch, whose life Toussaint was credited with saving in Afghanistan.

Hatch testified through tears that only after Toussaint killed the two enemy fighters did he return to his fallen comrades.

Cmdr. Aaron Rugh, one of Toussaint's lawyers, replayed the scene at the end of the hearing:

"In those moments, after his friend has been shot and his dog has been killed, he takes his weapon and he tries to provide security. Few of us can claim to have had such an impact on another person," Rugh said. "Even if every scurrilous, nasty allegation were true, his dedication, his selflessness at that moment, outweighs everything else."

The three-member board voted unanimously that Toussaint should retire as a senior chief, and an assistant Navy secretary eventually approved that decision.

Toussaint declined to comment Tuesday.

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