New Details on Submarine Coverup
So far, one officer and five enlisted sailors have received nonjudicial punishment following a preliminary investigation, but a broader Judge Advocate General's Manual investigation is underway, said Lt. Alli Myrick, spokeswoman for Submarine Squadron 11, which oversees the Hampton.
The nature of the punishments has not been disclosed, but the six have all been reassigned to the squadron, she said......
According to one source with knowledge of the investigation, the central problem involves how often sailors analyzed the chemical and radiological properties of the submarine's reactor, which is typically checked daily.
During preparations for the boat's Operational Reactor Safeguard Examination, which is typically conducted as a nuclear submarine ends its deployment, officials discovered that the sailors hadn't checked the water in at least a month, and their division officer, the chemistry/radiological controls assistant, knew it, the source said.
They also learned that the logs had been forged - or "radioed," in submarine parlance - later to cover up the lapse and make it look as though the sailors had been keeping up with required checks all along.
Word around the web is that the problems aren't limited to the Reactor Lab division -- lots of folks are making noises about inhospitable command climate across the boat. There also appear to be rumblings that this isn't the first boat to be caught at this, just the most egregious example (and the one they decided to make an example of).
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