Sailors to be compensated
Remember the Sailors aboard HMAS Success who where relieved of duty and flown home from Singapore for alleged sexual misconduct?
If not, read this before you go on.
More over the fold
There have been two reports on the incident. The first found they were guilty of acting like sailors but the second was devoted to how the navy managed the allegations of unacceptable behaviour.
Not well, it seems’
When the Success docked in Singapore in May 2009, three men regarded as the alleged ringleader and his henchmen were marched off the ship and flown back to Australia in circumstances which Mr Gyles said amounted to a very public humiliation. Further, none were provided with any reason for what had happened until four months later. The consequences were escalated to extraordinary proportions by the media frenzy surrounding claims that they had run a sex ledger, offering cash rewards for those sleeping with named female sailors.Mr Gyles found no evidence of a sex ledger. ….(The) sailors implicated in gross misconduct aboard the supply ship HMAS Success will receive a formal apology and compensation for being publicly shamed.
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Once again, the military hierarchy has been made to look like incompetent fools by bleating to the media before the facts were established.
ADFA, the Commandos, HMAS Success, the list goes on.
For the life of me, I cannot see any reason for “public interest” in these matters. All should have been dealt with at CO level.
Smith and his raft of “enquiries” will achieve nothing except breeding more resentment of interfering politicians who see the military as an organisation needing “social reform” rather than a war fighting machine.