Female officers filmed - A male US Navy officer is being investigated for secretly recording and distributing videos of his female colleagues undressing and bathing.
The female officers filmed are among the first female sailors serving on Navy submarines. They were reportedly filmed over a period of a year.
According to the Navy Times, the female officers filmed were stationed aboard the USS Wyoming nuclear-armed submarine, which is situated at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base, Georgia.
Vice Adm. M. J. Connor, the commander of the Navy's submarine force, said in a statement that an investigation into the outrage has been opened.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating the accused 24-year-old second class petty officer for having the female officers filmed and distributing of the videos. All other officers, who are being investigated in connection with the incident, have been removed from the submarine.
"The Navy became aware of the alleged criminal activity in November 2014 and promptly began an investigation, which is ongoing," Kings Bay spokeswoman Lt. Leslie Hubbell said.
Sources say the scandal was reported after an officer in another submarine received the videos.
Reports indicate that the videos in question, allegedly shows at least three female officers showering and undressing. Navy authorities suspect that the perpetrators may have had both male and female officers filmed. However, this has not been confirmed since only footages of female officers were released.
The news of female officers filmed has been described as a big scandal, especially for the military which is respected for discipline and order. Even more so, in 2011, the Wyoming submarines were among the first to take 12 female officers aboard after a ban on women serving in the force was lifted in 2010.
The scandal also comes just weeks before the Navy's next program to integrate the first female officers into the Virginia-class attack boats, who would then be enlisted with submarine ranks.
"We go to war together with the confidence that we can rely on each other in ALL circumstances, and incidents of sailors victimizing other sailors represent an extreme breach of that trust," Vice Adm. M.J. Connor said.
The Navy is said to be investigating the incident as a "privacy violation," a move which does not sit down well with some of the female officers filmed. Meanwhile, the name of the officer accused of making and distributing the videos has not been disclosed. Also, Navy officials have not disclosed how many women and videos were made or how they were distributed.
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