IG: O-1 faced reprisals over harassment claims - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

IG: O-1 faced reprisals over harassment claims

A junior officer who accused his command of giving him anti-gay call signs was improperly punished with a bad fitness report when he complained about the environment in his squadron, Pentagon and Navy inspectors general have found.

The naval inspector general’s finding, cited in a Feb. 2 letter to the officer, Ensign Steve Crowston, substantiates Crowston’s claim of reprisal by Cmdr. Liam Bruen, former commander of Strike Fighter Squadron 136, based at Naval Air Station Oceana, Va. Two weeks earlier, the Defense Department’s inspector general determined that the naval IG had come to the proper conclusion.

The naval IG letter does not name Bruen. Instead, it acknowledges Crowston’s complaint of “alleged reprisal actions … by the command leadership” of the unit and states, “We determined that your allegation that you received an unfavorable fitness report in reprisal for your protected communications is substantiated.”

However, Bruen, who transferred last summer to the Bremerton, Wash.-based carrier John C. Stennis as its the operations officer, has been temporarily reassigned to the staff of Naval Air Force Pacific “pending the outcome of the investigation,” Navy spokesman Lt. Myers Vasquez told Navy Times. A copy of the reprisal investigation has been forwarded to his chain of command aboard Stennis “for corrective action as they deem appropriate,” Vasquez said.

Crowston told the IG that Bruen and the unit’s then-executive officer, Cmdr. Damien Christopher, were in the unit’s ready room during an August 2009 all-officer review of squadron call signs, when Crowston was presented with suggestions such as “Fagmeister,” “Gay Boy” and the group’s final choice, “Romo’s Bitch” — a reference to the quarterback of Crowston’s favorite football team, the Dallas Cowboys. Crowston was the squadron’s administration/legal officer.

Call signs are informal shorthand nicknames, often irreverent and edgy, that are generally reserved for fliers and which serve as quick identifiers while airborne. They are typically bestowed on younger fliers by wardroom ballot and often change during the course of one’s career. They are not generally given to non-fliers.

Christopher is now the now commanding officer of the unit, which flies F/A-18 Super Hornets and is deployed aboard the Norfolk-based carrier Enterprise. The Naval IG’s finding concerned only the officer who wrote the fitrep, Vasquez said.

Crowston, who is assigned to Naval Special Warfare Group 2 at Little Creek, Va., will not disclose his sexuality, saying he feels it isn’t relevant and that his concerns are for what he considers to be inappropriate workplace harassment.

Following the meeting and what Crowston said was a subsequent string of e-mails that circulated within the squadron that contained anti-gay slurs, and his observation of several other perceived policy violations, Crowston, a former chief petty officer, filed a complaint with the Naval Air Force Atlantic’s inspector general in February 2010. The AIRLANT IG ultimately substantiated only four of 19 allegations, none of them related to the alleged harassment.

In July, Crowston appealed those findings to the DoD IG.

Crowston still awaits the results of two additional Naval IG investigations which remain in progress, according to Vasquez. In the meantime, Crowston seemed to draw some satisfaction from the naval and DoD IG findings.

“I’ve worked for some stellar commanding officers, and quite frankly have not witnessed a CO act the way Cmdr. Bruen did,” Crowston told Navy Times. “There are laws and regulations against reprisal, and Cmdr. Bruen used his position as CO to attempt to affect my career. He gave me the worst performance appraisal in almost 17 years of service. My performance evaluations from former COs are a strong indication I have been able to come to work and perform my duties in an exemplary and highly professional manner.”

Crowston said the fitness report in question should be removed from his permanent record as a result of the IG finding. Whether he can, however, has yet to be determined. The naval IG told Crowston he has the right to petition the Board for Correction of Naval Records to have it removed.

Still, Crowston would like an apology from Bruen, which he said he’s previously refused to do.

”Cmdr. Bruen needs to acknowledge what he did was inappropriate — it was wrong as a CO and it was wrong as a senior naval officer,” Crowston said.