Over the weekend, it hit the news that NCIS is investigating a closed Facebook group where Marines and veterans (some 30K strong) were trading and soliciting nude photos of female service members. In several cases, photos were accompanied by names, ranks, and duty stations of those shown.
A former Marine 03 and current journalist is credited with exposing the site, and has been dealing with threats of death and sexual assault against him and his family as a result.
At the base, this is nothing new. There was a hue and cry a couple years back over similar stuff (Fn' wooks, Pog boot fucks, hell, Just the tip of the spear went through 20-odd iterations, each one getting shut down before popping right back up?)
A few years before that, Chelsea Manning decided to commit espionage. The entire Marine Corps lost their shit in a cycle like this:
"You can't use personal thumb drives"
"But I need it to do my job."
"Still can't use them. Has to be done on government computers."
"They suck and we can't get them issued anyway."
"Fuck you, there's no supply of them."
"Fuck you back, here's my work on this thumb drive."
Before Facebook, there was the Camp Bucca mud wrestling incident in 04, as well as the young lady at Al Taq who used an MWR computer to send pics back to her S.O. and didn't clear the temporary folder.
So no, acquiring and sharing nudes of your colleagues is nothing new to the Marines.
What is new is twofold:
One, the sheer scale. What used to be shared between a squad or within a company at best is now done in closed fb groups with mid-five-figure membership numbers. And yet, it's still a closed circle. It's an attempt to have the shock value of smoke pit bullshitting without the knowledge that you're talking to people who have your back. Worse still, it's the assumption that this huge group does have your back the way a squad would, which leads me into...
Two, the viciousness. Ten years ago, a new picture was a new picture. You jerked off and moved on. But somewhere along the line, an ugly form of Zuckerberg's "people don't care about seeing pictures of girls. They want to see pictures of girls they know" became substantial. "Make her famous" used to be reserved for those who cheated with Jody while their guy was deployed at best. Now it's being used against any who speak up (there's currently a bounty out for pictures of the daughter of the journalist who broke the latest story).
NCIS is on the job. They'll catch a handful of those stupid enough to use their real names and not cover their tracks. We'll have a couple of Article 134 and Article 120c hearings.
And dick all else will happen. Another group has already opened, and they're already sharing.
Which leads me to potential solutions.
Quick question: Are you capable of respecting, saluting, and following orders from someone who's pictures you jerked off to the night before?
If you're an OIF/OEF veteran and said, "no," I call bullshit on you.
Because I was totally there when the cute air wing officer decided to go for a run in silkies. And each and every swinging dick became an instant master of subterfuge in body language, being in exactly the right spot to get the optimal view of catching the bounce of her ass while simultaneously ~not~ be caught staring. Motherfuckers were ninjas when it came to that. And a few hours later with all concerned in uniform, there were snappy salutes, proper greetings of the day, and taking care of business.
So don't hand me your fucking lies that you're incapable of respecting someone whose image you've jerked off to, because it's bullshit and you know it.
But if someone still insists such and is active duty, then that's what articles 89, 91, and 134 of the good old UCMJ are for.
While at the same time, we need to remove posing nude as a valid case for Article 133 or 134. If nothing else, for the fact that we'll be out of recruits within a year otherwise.
Because the idea of stopping sexting is naive at best, blind stupidity at worst. The movement to not share what hasn't been shared with you is noble, but I fear doomed to failure. Our newest military recruits were in diapers when napster came online. And now they've gone through high school in a world where the most popular shows on TV are also the most torrented. Convincing them any sort of media shouldn't be free is pissing into the hurricane.
Our only solution that gets us a fighting force of sane human beings is a removal of the stupid veil of shame that accompanies posing for such.
You need NCO's saying, "Yeah, the LT posed. Who gives a fuck? You better have the proper greeting of the day falling out of your cock holster instead of drool, she comes fucking by. Got that shit?"
You need spouses saying, "Hey, they're cute. So, what do you want to do for dinner?"
We need girls in general out of this bullshit societal double-walled shame trap we've built up to begin with, and we especially need those who swear the oath to be out of it.
A former Marine 03 and current journalist is credited with exposing the site, and has been dealing with threats of death and sexual assault against him and his family as a result.
At the base, this is nothing new. There was a hue and cry a couple years back over similar stuff (Fn' wooks, Pog boot fucks, hell, Just the tip of the spear went through 20-odd iterations, each one getting shut down before popping right back up?)
A few years before that, Chelsea Manning decided to commit espionage. The entire Marine Corps lost their shit in a cycle like this:
"You can't use personal thumb drives"
"But I need it to do my job."
"Still can't use them. Has to be done on government computers."
"They suck and we can't get them issued anyway."
"Fuck you, there's no supply of them."
"Fuck you back, here's my work on this thumb drive."
Before Facebook, there was the Camp Bucca mud wrestling incident in 04, as well as the young lady at Al Taq who used an MWR computer to send pics back to her S.O. and didn't clear the temporary folder.
So no, acquiring and sharing nudes of your colleagues is nothing new to the Marines.
What is new is twofold:
One, the sheer scale. What used to be shared between a squad or within a company at best is now done in closed fb groups with mid-five-figure membership numbers. And yet, it's still a closed circle. It's an attempt to have the shock value of smoke pit bullshitting without the knowledge that you're talking to people who have your back. Worse still, it's the assumption that this huge group does have your back the way a squad would, which leads me into...
Two, the viciousness. Ten years ago, a new picture was a new picture. You jerked off and moved on. But somewhere along the line, an ugly form of Zuckerberg's "people don't care about seeing pictures of girls. They want to see pictures of girls they know" became substantial. "Make her famous" used to be reserved for those who cheated with Jody while their guy was deployed at best. Now it's being used against any who speak up (there's currently a bounty out for pictures of the daughter of the journalist who broke the latest story).
NCIS is on the job. They'll catch a handful of those stupid enough to use their real names and not cover their tracks. We'll have a couple of Article 134 and Article 120c hearings.
And dick all else will happen. Another group has already opened, and they're already sharing.
Which leads me to potential solutions.
Quick question: Are you capable of respecting, saluting, and following orders from someone who's pictures you jerked off to the night before?
If you're an OIF/OEF veteran and said, "no," I call bullshit on you.
Because I was totally there when the cute air wing officer decided to go for a run in silkies. And each and every swinging dick became an instant master of subterfuge in body language, being in exactly the right spot to get the optimal view of catching the bounce of her ass while simultaneously ~not~ be caught staring. Motherfuckers were ninjas when it came to that. And a few hours later with all concerned in uniform, there were snappy salutes, proper greetings of the day, and taking care of business.
So don't hand me your fucking lies that you're incapable of respecting someone whose image you've jerked off to, because it's bullshit and you know it.
But if someone still insists such and is active duty, then that's what articles 89, 91, and 134 of the good old UCMJ are for.
While at the same time, we need to remove posing nude as a valid case for Article 133 or 134. If nothing else, for the fact that we'll be out of recruits within a year otherwise.
Because the idea of stopping sexting is naive at best, blind stupidity at worst. The movement to not share what hasn't been shared with you is noble, but I fear doomed to failure. Our newest military recruits were in diapers when napster came online. And now they've gone through high school in a world where the most popular shows on TV are also the most torrented. Convincing them any sort of media shouldn't be free is pissing into the hurricane.
Our only solution that gets us a fighting force of sane human beings is a removal of the stupid veil of shame that accompanies posing for such.
You need NCO's saying, "Yeah, the LT posed. Who gives a fuck? You better have the proper greeting of the day falling out of your cock holster instead of drool, she comes fucking by. Got that shit?"
You need spouses saying, "Hey, they're cute. So, what do you want to do for dinner?"
We need girls in general out of this bullshit societal double-walled shame trap we've built up to begin with, and we especially need those who swear the oath to be out of it.
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