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18 Ike sailors punished over exam

Seventeen senior enlisted sailors and one junior officer in the reactor department of the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower were disciplined in connection with senior-level cheating on a written nuclear exam while underway late last year, according to several Navy sources familiar with the matter.

A spokesman for Naval Reactors confirmed the incident but provided few additional details because of privacy considerations of the sailors involved and the highly classified aspects of nuclear propulsion.

“Recently, one written examination, a small portion of the overall periodic assessment ... was compromised,” Lukas McMichael, spokesman for Naval Reactors, said in a written statement. “A replacement written examination was successfully administered and the overall assessment was successfully completed. USS Dwight D. Eisenhower is operating safely.”

The month of the incident was not provided, but an enlisted source familiar with the incident said it occurred in November or December.

The written exam was part of an annual multiday evaluation by members of the Nuclear Propulsion Examining Board. The group is more commonly known as the ORSE board, shorthand for Operational Reactor Safeguards Examination.

McMichael refused to provide the paygrades of the 18 personnel but did say “all the [17] enlisted were senior enlisted, which means E-7 and above.” A Navy official — who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak on the matter — identified the officer only as a “junior officer.”

McMichael said “administrative and/or disciplinary actions were taken” against the 18 crew members “associated with the compromise.” Of those, 11 were administratively transferred out of the reactor department — either to other ships, other commands or elsewhere on the Eisenhower.

The Navy official confirmed that “11 [naval enlisted classifications] were revoked, the same amount of people transferred from the department.” The remaining seven “received administrative and disciplinary action to include letters of reprimand.”

It is not clear how many of the 18 actually cheated or at the very least knew the test was compromised and did not report it.

McMichael would not say how the compromise occurred, but a retired nuclear-trained officer with extensive knowledge of ORSE procedures said it would be possible for a member of the department to access the answer key before the written test is administered — and then share it.

He speculated that since the punishments were limited to E-7s and above, the exam must have been for engineering officers of the watch and engineering watch supervisors. “That would explain why there’d be no E-5 wrapped up in it,” the retired officer said.

A carrier reactor department has more than 350 sailors, and roughly 30 of those are E-7 and above. The department has nine divisions, including propulsion, training and electrical.

McMichael said the incident did not prompt a wider fleet standdown, nor was there any follow-on investigation involving reactor departments aboard other carriers.

“At no point was the reactor, the crew or the public ever in any danger,” he said. “The matter is concluded. It appeared to be an integrity issue and local.”

In a typical department, all but a few members would be nuclear-qualified. Nearly every member must take monthly written exams. Although reactor department sailors are tested at a steady rate, the written examination that was compromised was administered during the ORSE team’s annual visit.

While McMichael stressed that ship’s safety was not an issue, the retired nuclear-trained officer said such a compromise is bad for the ship for a variety of reasons, from morale to leadership to readiness. In the reactor department, he stressed, a breach of integrity is a matter of life and death.

It’s so serious, in fact, that he said the word “integrity” is not even uttered in those spaces.

“We used to look at each other and ask, ‘Is this an “i-word” issue?’” he said. “We didn’t even like to say that word.”

Another negative effect of the removals involves manning. An active-duty nuclear-qualified petty officer familiar with the matter said removing a handful of chiefs from the department means pulling in fresh ones to fill the empty billets. It’s problematic, considering that the Ike will deploy in a few weeks with unfamiliar shipmates. The petty officer, who knows several of the people involved, also requested anonymity.

“Removing that many chiefs would be detrimental to the ship because you need a lot of chiefs in the reactor department,” he said. “The situation happening in connection to an ORSE exam is pretty appalling because you take the test every month. On a normal test, you have a study guide. The guide usually tries to put you in the right direction.”

Pressure on the department

The reactor department, already a high-stress environment, bends over backward when the ORSE team is onboard, the retired officer said.

The retired officer said part of the ORSE evaluation involves testing the department’s training division. He speculated that this was how the test likely was compromised. To test the trainers, the ORSE team first hands a test to the trainers with no answers filled in. The trainers then must create an answer key, administer the test to the rest of the department and grade it. This is all evaluated by the ORSE team.

The training division’s newly created answer key was most likely delivered electronically, the retired officer said.

Lost specialty, lost cash

While loss of those NECs for the 11 booted from the department means a loss of status, in the nuclear Navy that also means a significant financial hit.

As senior enlisted nuclear-qualified sailors in supervisory roles, they lost tens of thousands each in re-enlistment bonuses and incentive pays. Nukes are eligible for retention bonuses from $60,000 to $125,000, depending on their rates and qualifications.

The cheating episode on Eisenhower is similar to a scandal discovered aboard the attack submarine Hampton when it returned from a deployment in September 2007. The commanding officer was fired and three officers and seven sailors were disciplined to varying degrees after sailors were found to have falsified logs, cheated on exams and recorded false test grades. Submarine Forces commander Vice Adm. Jay Donnelly, ordered “deep dive” teams to the fleet in the aftermath to look more closely at morale and retention issues.

Related reading:

How ORSE tests a department