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Senior chief to retire in hazing investigation

The senior chief who ran a military working dog kennel in Bahrain and permitted hazing, hookers and other misconduct will be forced into retirement in January, Navy officials said Wednesday.

Senior Chief Master-at-Arms Michael Toussaint, 38, will be removed from his current post as a dog handler with a SEAL unit and placed on desk duty with Naval Special Warfare Group 2 until he leaves the service, said Cmdr. Elissa Smith, a Navy spokeswoman at the Pentagon.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead ordered a fresh review of the 2007 command investigation that confirmed widespread misconduct in the unit Toussaint led but did not result in significant disciplinary actions.

The investigation found one sailor was ordered to simulate homosexual sex acts, tied up and locked in a dog cage, and forced to eat dog biscuits. Gambling, fraternization and socializing with prostitutes were also commonplace among some of the unit’s sailors, investigators found.

Related reading: Report outlines security unit hazing, assault

Toussaint, who often bragged about his connections within the close-knit world of Navy dog handlers, was later promoted to senior chief and transferred to the joint military working dog school to serve as an instructor.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus issued a “Secretarial letter of censure” criticizing Toussaint, which will be placed in the sailor’s permanent military file.

Toussaint enlisted in the Navy on Jan. 23, 1990, Navy records show, so allowing him to remain on active duty until January will ensure that he receives retirement benefits.

However, Mabus plans to review Toussaint’s case again in a “retirement pay-grade determination” which “has the potential to significantly impact Senior Chief Toussaint's retirement pay,” Smith said.

Under the 2009 retirement pay schedule, Toussaint will be eligible for about $2,032 in monthly retirement pay as a senior chief. If Mabus opted to reduce him one rank, to E-7, he would receive about $1,850 each month under the 2009 figures; if reduced to E-1, a retired sailor can receive $664 monthly.

Roughead has also decided to seek further information about how the investigation was handled by the command leadership. The CNO told the Naval Criminal Investigative Service to conduct additional interviews with the officers who were stationed in Bahrain at the time.

One sailor in Toussaint’s unit, MA1 Jennifer Valdivia, committed suicide in January 2007 as the investigation came to a close because she feared her commanders were blaming her for the unit’s problems, her father said.

The case drew attention in recent weeks after several sailors began to speak publicly about the troubled unit.

Allegations that a gay sailor was targeted for uniquely severe hazing came at a time of renewed national debate about the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

The gay sailor, Joseph Rocha, was trying to adhere to the policy while he was on active duty. He chose to leave the Navy in 2007 when he told senior officials that he is a homosexual. He received an honorable discharge.

“This is a proud day for the entire Navy, in re-establishing its core values and in protecting the dignity of its service members,” Rocha said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

“To see the CNO and the secretary of the Navy, the most powerful gentlemen in the United States Navy, to speak nationally on behalf of an openly gay veteran, it’s definitely groundbreaking. I think it sets the tone for our future military.”

Rocha has been an active advocate for the repeal of the policy and said he hopes to become a commissioned Navy officer if the law changes.