A ship poisoning its personal crew by mixing gasoline into its water. Extremist teams focusing on service members and veterans for recruitment. An ongoing shroud of uncertainty surrounding accidents harming troops aboard Osprey plane. A recruiter accused of grooming a younger potential Marine, after which bragging about his actions in a self-published memoir.
These are simply among the tales the Navy.com newsroom unearthed in 2023. Generally, our reporting yielded essential info with solely a few days of shoe leather-based. Generally, the journalism was the work of years of cautious investigation.
All of those tales helped the army neighborhood perceive what was taking place, and helped some obtain the care and advantages they’d earned via their service.
This 12 months, the reporting workforce additionally obtained recognition for investigations revealed in 2022, together with the Joe Galloway Award from MRE and an honorable point out from the Gerald R. Ford Awards, each for this deep investigation into traumatic mind harm within the army neighborhood. Two Navy.com reporters additionally have been honored for being amongst the highest 10 veterans in journalism by MVJ for his or her reporting on American veterans combating in Ukraine, and on a church accused of scamming veterans.
This is an unranked checklist of the Prime 10(ish) tales written by Navy.com for 2023, lots of which can doubtless land on awards lists launched this coming 12 months.
Service usually entails a certain quantity of well being and security threat. However in a single case documented by Navy.com, the hazard for the crew of the united statesBoxer was totally preventable and the shortage of documentation problematic for these sickened troops once they sought assist and compensation.
The multiyear investigation revealed that crew members on the ship had dumped gasoline into the ocean, solely to suck that very same gasoline again up into the ship’s water system, forcing sailors and Marines to drink and bathe in tainted water. Years later, when some sought assist from the Division of Veterans Affairs, they discovered that the Navy did not hold any documentation concerning the 2016 incident.
As a part of Navy.com’s reporting, the Navy, for the primary time, publicly acknowledged the occasion. Former crew members have been utilizing that acknowledgment and the article’s description of the gasoline dump to hunt advantages and, in at the least one case, a earlier declare denial was reversed.
No challenge drove concern amongst army management fairly just like the alarming shortages in recruiting. Even the smaller providers that managed to hit recruiting targets barely cleared the mark, and infrequently needed to depend on reserves of deferred-entry recruits to make quota.
Why the army is struggling to draw younger expertise is the topic of raging debate, each within the army neighborhood and amongst politicians who’ve chosen the problem as a mechanism to focus on their favored points.
Navy.com lined the big selection of methods the providers are utilizing to attempt to make up for the shortfall, together with huge will increase to bonuses and specialised pre-basic coaching camps designed to assist recruits meet service requirements. (Whereas not included within the Prime 10 for thematic causes, this function on the course designed for potential troopers who haven’t met the tutorial requirements of the service is a should learn” ‘Final Cease USA’: How the Army Is Making an attempt to Fill in for a Damaged Schooling System.)
If you wish to perceive the coverage alterations which are altering life for these within the enlisted ranks, it is usually essential to grasp these providers’ enlisted leaders.
These two options have a look at the boys who have been departing key positions with the Army and Area Pressure, respectively.
The widespread theme between the 2 is how these leaders leaned on private expertise and the empathy that imbued in them to attempt to make modifications to assist these in uniform and form cultures that have been supportive.
The variety of veterans who have been recognized as collaborating within the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol has led to quite a lot of questions on radicalization within the army neighborhood. 4 Navy.com reporters spent greater than a 12 months working to research the methods extremist teams goal these within the army neighborhood.
The ensuing three-part collection detailed how the teams initially lure service members and veterans, the rise of the menace posed by these extremist teams, and what the army has and hasn’t performed to attempt to ensure troops aren’t prone to recruitment.
The collection paints an image of teams that acknowledge the inherent credibility and data that may be gained by placing veterans in distinguished positions, in addition to specific moments of vulnerability for vets that make them simpler targets. It additionally reveals that the curiosity in combating the issue shortly pale after the subject grew to become extremely politicized, and ongoing efforts are minimal.
The providers skilled a collection of Osprey crashes previously 12 months and, whereas the causes of all of them aren’t totally identified at the moment, a long-recognized mechanical challenge has put the security file of the plane again within the highlight.
This function revealed the small print of 1 previous incident with the mechanical flaw the army has struggled to repair leading to repeated grounding of the plane. Whereas the providers downplayed the clutch drawback, this story confirmed simply how debilitating failure of the part could possibly be, placing service members’ lives in danger.
One other crash late within the 12 months, the deadliest within the historical past of the Air Pressure’s use of the platform, has led to a congressional inquiry into the security of the Osprey.
The PACT Act represented one of many largest expansions of VA advantages within the company’s historical past, however not all veterans have been included. This text detailed how some veterans, uncovered to toxins whereas serving at army installations not talked about within the PACT Act, have been neglected of the chance to get assist.
Along with highlighting the problems these veterans face, this story additionally serves as a preview for 4 separate investigations all underway by Navy.com reporters which are a part of a undertaking supported by the Pulitzer Middle.
The publication at all times carefully covers VA advantages, however this undertaking will have a look at a number of main points tied to veterans well being and well being care, with extra in-depth investigations set to be revealed in early 2024.
The connection between recruiters and potential service members is below renewed scrutiny because the providers look to enhance recruiting within the face of weak numbers. However the inherent energy dynamic, the place an grownup holds super authority over usually underage youngsters determined to satisfy goals of service, creates clear alternative for abuse.
This story detailed accusations towards a Marine recruiter who self-published a memoir that outlined a sexual relationship with a recruit that allegedly started when she was underage.
After the preliminary report, the sufferer described that she obtained threatening messages from the recruiter, and Navy.com continued to report on the scenario and the shortage of motion by the service.
Generally, themes which are prevalent throughout America, like crushing medical debt, seem within the army neighborhood regardless of packages and insurance policies that ought to insulate service members.
On this report, Navy.com disclosed how a dual-military couple had been getting harassing calls after their daughter had a medically difficult beginning that ought to have been lined by army well being care.
It was solely after they turned to social media that an Army official personally intervened, and the debt was eradicated, nevertheless it’s a reminder that, even in a system that’s designed to ensure well being advantages, constant monitoring and advocacy is essential.
A variety of service members are inked. The artwork serves as a possibility to recollect essential moments and other people, a type of self-expression in an surroundings the place conformity is the norm, and a way of bonding with those that have shared a foxhole.
This episode of the Fireplace Watch podcast noticed the present’s host journey to a tattoo museum to raised perceive the artwork type, along with recording himself getting a brand new tattoo whereas speaking to a fellow vet about what ink means to them.
Whereas many of the journalism carried out by Navy.com seems as written articles on the web site, this 12 months noticed a number of compelling episodes of Fireplace Watch, together with one which helped reveal the battle by the household of Col. Paris D. Davis to assist him obtain the Medal of Honor he clearly deserved, and an inside account of a combat towards a terrorist group in Somalia.
Subscribe to Fireplace Watch on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
At a time when the providers are struggling to draw new recruits, Navy.com broke the information that the Nationwide Guard hadn’t paid out enlistment bonuses to at the least 9,000 troopers promised sums for signing on the dotted line.
1000’s of these troopers accomplished their service with out receiving the bonuses, with officers attempting to repair points with the Army monitoring methods to cope with the huge backlog.
“I did my finish of issues, and it is a actually dangerous introduction to the Army, not taking good care of folks,” one affected soldier informed Navy.com.
Honorable Point out
We focus our protection on the problems impacting the army neighborhood at Navy.com, which means that we do not are inclined to cowl pie-in-the-sky concepts in relation to potential know-how. However what if that know-how is planted inside troops’ heads and is quite a bit nearer to actuality than science fiction? That query led to an investigation into ongoing analysis about bioenhancement for troops and, specifically, efforts to hyperlink brains to computer systems.
(Editor’s Notice: This text was excluded from the formal high 10 checklist provided that Navy.com Managing Editor Zachary Fryer-Biggs shared a byline on the function.)
