Fired USS Lake Erie captain instilled a ‘culture of fear’
Capt. Danielle DeFant
Report: Fired USS Lake Erie captain instilled a ‘culture of fear’
By Sarah Sicard
The commanding officer of the cruiser Lake Erie fostered a hostile environment on the ship by tormenting crew members before she was relieved of duty in October, according to a Navy investigation obtained by Navy Times.
Capt. Danielle DeFant — who commanded the ship for roughly 14 months — was ousted following an investigation that began after three unnamed subordinates aired grievances about “toxic command climate and/or sexual discrimination.”
A Freedom of Information Act request filed by KPBS in San Diego first revealed details of the Navy’s investigation.
The probe reveals instances where DeFant screamed at and berated subordinates — particularly the officers — creating a “toxic” situation.
Captain DeFant’s behavior consisting of yelling, profanity, and public admonishments has contributed to a culture of fear onboard,” the investigation states.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This excessive use of physical force was classified as battery per Article 128 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the investigation states.
The report found DeFant publicly grabbed or struck her officers, alienated the Chief’s Mess, overreacted to minor transgressions, and failed to mention abysmal command climate results when briefing superiors. This type of behavior didn’t just happen in a vacuum, yet she obviously screened for command. In the new military DEI reality one can’t help but wonder how much “help” she received along the way. This doubt is the poison of Affirmative Action. Thanks to all who sent this one in.
Category: "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", DEI, Guest Link, Navy
Jesus fucking Christ that official photo is enough to do it for me.
Fuck thanks for posting that now it’s gonna take me the entire weekend to try to un-turtle my penis. 😫
IDC SARC has left the building….SCREAMING…. NOOOOO!
😆 🤣
Get him another 12 pack. He’ll git’r’dun. I wonder if they make transdermal penicillin patches. A man can seldom too cautious in some areas of operation.
http://www.pornhub.com
Can’t lie, at least not on the Bill & Hill level, I’ve been to that site before.
A brutha gots to do watta a brutha gots to do, sometimes.
Here ya go Chip…
Till I read the article I thought it was a dude.
She should become a ‘ Transman ‘ it might be an improvement and I’m sure no one would notice anyway
A real life Queeg.
The Navy really needs to revamp their pipeline for skippers. How are they making so many bad picks? At this point it appears to be a feature and not a bug in the system.
Favoritism/nepotism, boot licking, with political correctness and wokeness added to the mix.
Additionally, many of the folks that are in leadership positions at the ship or equivalent level today benefited from the “kid glove” treatment during and after the mid 1990s. The folks that came in during this time were spared from the “old school leadership” that the rest of us were subjected to. They were not held to the standards that we, and others before us, were held to. This included not being held accountable in areas they should have been held accountable going up the ranks.
The results are not surprising. It’s going to get worse.
One has ask; was she a DEI appointment? Moved through the pipeline to get more “wahmen” in command?
This type of behavior must have been present when she was in her DIVO, Dept. Head, and XO tours, right?
DEI failures lead to others getting the ‘side eye’ when they take command because the DEI question will be the back of people’s minds; a merit promotion or another quota skipper.
She must be a laugh riot at Mess Night.
Wouldn’t wanna see her Captain’s Mast when it’s angry…
Alienated the Chief’s Mess – That says a lot. Publicly admonishing an officer – I wonder who the “Public” was – I had to be restrained once for squaring away the acting Combat Systems Officer for being stupid – He asked the question I answered and he didn’t like my answer and it went nuclear with him attacking me personally so I was going to beat his azz in front of everyone. The good ol days.
Sigh… Indeed… Those were the good ol days…
I remember one time, when an OS1 conjured an attitude with an OSC. What the OSC said, paraphrased, “Talk to me like that again and you’ll be waking out with your head shoved up your ass!”
My personal favorite to use when “counseling” Junior Marines when they got a bit mouthy was a line stolen from the Shawshank Redemption: “yeah? That’s real funny. Gonna be funnier when you’re sucking my dick with no teeth.”
Such as:
SWO’s eat their young. Always have and never understood it. But lose the Goat Locker? It’s just a matter of time then.
Navy CAPT Holly Graf, Air Force Brig Gen Jennifer Grant, and Air Force Maj Gen Dawn Dunlop are in the female officer toxic leadership hall of fame. Welcome to the club CAPT DeFant. Maybe don’t appoint female COs? Yeah, a sexist would say. 😏
I would be fine with that.
You touch me out of context and it’s game on, ovaries or naw.
Goddamn, no fucking shit. I get customs and courtesies, respect, whatever.
You let one of your appendages touch me? Extended limbs are broken limbs.
You’d expect the Infantry to be the place for that kind of crap but in my 7 years in a line unit, near-zero enough to not mention.
(The occasional ‘shirts-off, ranks-off’ behind the tracked buildings but that’s Man Law and good-to-go in my book)
High or low, I’ve always seen a one time courtesy “don’t touch me again” at the least, full on “go” at worst, never heard of repercussions from a tit-for-tat in that context as the lovefest is broken up before it gets ‘bad enough’ for NJP. (NCOs usually getting moved when the headshed deems it appropriate)
Humans are humans no matter where you is so I’m under no illusion Navy can act better than a bunch of Grunts.
I’m just a Squid, but, I think the fact that Infantry Soldier and Marine officers are aware that their personnel have been trained, and conditioned to react violently to being assaulted, might give those officers pause before the laying on of hands… Especially if they don’t think they can take the person in a fight, a classification that would fit DeFant. She was simply relying on her Rank and her sex to defend herself from retribution. God! I hate officers who think their feces is odor free and use their position to abuse their subordinates.
Toxic leadership is so hot right now. /sarc
This explains a lot.
I worked for a couple of MEN who behaved this way.
I remember thinking at the time; “It must be their time of the month 24/7/365.”
They were manstrating?
I learned long ago that we are all humans, Soldiers (or insert your service), and seniors or subordinates. If you can’t figure out from any one of those statuses how to treat people, you aren’t a good leader. You don’t have to be a dick to be a leader. And if you’ve alienated your NCO corps, you’ve definitely failed. No sympathy.
No, don’t have to be a dick but you still need the respect of your Marines/soldiers/airmen/sailors. The newer crop of service members are used to be corrected/told they are “wrong” so a lot of the time they will pop off trying to argue. You gotta nip that shit QUICK or you’ll have a platoon of people doing their own damn thing
I don’t disagree with you on that. For me it’s a rheostat. I’m going to treat everybody with courtesy. If “you” choose not to treat me with courtesy, I can quickly dial up a level that will make one regret their choices in life. Then turn it off. Dick leaders live as dicks and can’t turn it off. Poor followers also can’t recognize when getting crushed that it’s professional, not personal.
Dick leaders are also the ones that have spent their whole life believing that the little swatches on their collar/sleeve exudes some sort of “power”. These are the guys and gals that wind up having a heart attack and blowing a vessel the first time someone tells them to go fuck themselves after they retire
If I were that fugly, I would be angry with the world too. Another obvious affirmative action DEI hire/promotion.
A friend of mine was PCS’d to Churchill under Holly Graf. He was one of the most gung ho and squared away Sailors I ever knew in my career. He really loved being a Sailor and he loved the Navy.
I talked to him after his time serving under that bitch and he was a totally different person. He was simply done, ready to get as far away from the Navy as he could. It really breaks my heart to think about it.
I’m sure this clown has left the same damage in her wake. All I hope for is that karma will catch up to her sooner rather later.
I have seen several “leaders” that absolutely ruined great Soldiers (I’m sure that same is true for sailors and airmen), I’ve also seen the E4 mafia make really good officers and NCOs say “the hell with it”.
Assholes are everywhere and at all ranks. They make life terrible for everyone around them.
I’ve worked for them and had them work for me!
Call them out when they’re wrong. Make them face their own shortcomings. It’s the only way to correct them above or below your rank.
https://youtu.be/2TnkJ8_BmSI
Oh. My. God.
She falls between Paula Broadwell and Payton Manning on forehead size.
The Navy could use her forehead to land aircraft.
If the commies ever told her to “face the wall” her reply
would be “I already am”.
Well…there is one airframe that remains an exception!
She sounds like one of my old bosses (Asst NCOIC, E-5 SSgt). While stationed in Germany, I was a newly promoted NCO (E-4 Buck Sergeant). I was placed in charge of one of the hardest sections in our Aircrew Life Support Shop. So my wife and I head to the base, she dropped me off went to the post office, BX, then did her commissary shopping. As I wading through all the BS in the section, doing a self inspection, finding the records/equipment were all screwed up. So I spent the day working on some of the issues. He stopped by and wasn’t happy with the fact I was changing things up. He was screaming like a banshee, when my wife walked in. He asked what the fuck do you want, she replied she was checking in to see if I wanted to go to the NCO Club for dinner. He looked at her and started screaming at her and said the next time you walk in during a counseling session, I’ll write your husband a LOR. I grabbed my stuff and left, he was screaming at me saying I didn’t dismiss you. Monday morning, I told my Superintendent about the incident, and said the next time he talks to my wife that way, you’ll find him floating in the Rhein River. I tried like hell to get his ass in trouble, and senior leadership just turned a blind eye and deaf ear to it. One of those leaders would later become Vice Chief of Staff Air Force. To prevent him from ruining the careers of my troops, I ran interference for my Airmen talking the brunt of his hissy fits and power trips. I had so many bogus LOCs, LOAs and LORs from this ass hat, that it made me nonpromotable. I ended up leaving Active Duty later, and going Reserves as an Air Reserve Technician. He tried his shit at his next assignment, threw a Technical Order at an Airman, and it just missed the Commander who was walking down the hallway. He was kicked out of the… Read more »
He must be related to the asshole SNCOIC of the Recruiting Office Hack Stone was assigned to. This prick was inspiration for the “Shady Recruiter”. An egotistical maniac on a power trip with no supervision from the Command. The kids hated him. The parents hated him. The Career Recruiters mocked him. And the Recruiters in his office openly despised him.
One particular Monday morning Hack Stone came into the office, and Gunny Peniscranium starts into him telling Sergeant Stone that he is going to write him up for disrespect.
Sergeant Stone: When was I disrespectful to you, Gunnery Sergeant Peniscranium?
GySgt Peniscranium: When I was talking to a prospective female recruit.
Sergeant Stone: That’s funny, Gunnery Sergeant. The only one I recall you speaking to on Saturday was Suzy Rottencrotch. She is only 15 1/2, and won’t be eligible to enlist for another year and a half. I’m sure the Major would like to know why you are spending so much time with someone who cannot enlist, with parental consent, for another 18 months.
Check mate! And as you read the above transcript, be sure to drag out “Gunnery Sergeant” in a mocking tone, like Hack Stone did.
Hack Stone left Recruiting Duty on bad terms. Most of the Recruiters under him EAS’ed instead of reenlisting, including yours truly.
Shortly afterwards the Recruiting Station Commander reassigned GySgt Peniscranium to an office in the city where the Recruiting Station was located. GySgt Peniscranium continued his shenanigans until the Colonel from Kansas City flew in and fired him on the spot. Kicked to the curb at about 16 years with nothing to show for it.
Thanks to the Internet, Hack Stone was able to find his mug shot from December 2022 for violating a restraining order. Planning on getting that photo silkscreened on a t-shirt. Just wondering if his current residence has a mailbox door.
@Hack Stone do I know you? NRD Kansas City 2003-2007 – I knew all the Marines in NW Arkansas at that time. I was in Fayetteville AR. One station commander there had some issues that I remember vividly.
Man… My wife is a sweet generous and gentle woman who always tries to get along with everyone, but bark at her and she grows Brass Tits™️. I showed her your story and she said “Oh f*ck no!” (Poor girl married a Sailor and became bilingual) She said she wouldn’t have said a word to the SSgt and would have just walked out, and forbidden me to say anything to anyone. However, the next day she would have gotten dressed up and called the Command Master Sgt’s wife and the CO’s wife and asked if she could come make her manners. (Not sure how it works in the AF, but in the Navy the wives are pretty much a crew of their own. The Chief of the Boat’s wife usually acts as the command Ombudsman, and the Skipper’s wife is the chairperson of the wives). Our first Skipper’s wife was a wonderful lady, who the crew genuinely liked. She would have been nuclear if one of the Petty Officers in our command had spoken to a dependent that way, and the Skipper liked a happy wife. It would have been Biblical.
Now….
The above is not a criticism of your or your wife’s actions. He was the one at fault, and remember that my wife and I are looking at this through the eyes of older adults who were in a completely different set of circumstances. A Submarine’s crew is very tight, and the wives tended to stick together for mutual support when we were out to sea. It would not be unusual for one of the junior enlisted dependents to tap that network when they needed help dealing with the Navy. Beating your Staff Sgt with a “Wive’s Club” may not have been an option for you, (and, honestly, might not have been something we would have thought of when we were younger,) but, we think it would have worked pretty well. I’m glad to hear he self destructed eventually. I just found my wife’s answer interesting, and thought you might as well.
Keep a Zero Bubble!
My wife was a Saint at the time, she always kept a far more level head than I did. While my wife was friends with a female SSgt and another SSgt’s wife in my shop, the dependent wives in our shop didn’t hang out much.
We had such a high turn over rate, most people kept to themselves.
The ass hat in question, was somebody’s golden boy for some reason. He was made out of Teflon while in Germany, nothing could stick to the guy.
For me it was funny how I fell from grace. I was selected as the wings candidate for Outstanding Aircrew Life Support Airman of the year, my package went to 22nd Air Force and I won at Numbered Air Force, then went to Major Command, where I was bested by another Airman.
Six months later my Enlisted Performance Report, says I’m basically a worthless slug. Went from stellar troop to total fucktard in six months on paper. Then the shit started, an airman is late, I get an LOR, an airman had an alcohol related incident while I was on leave in the US, I came back to a LOR. Someone loses equipment while deployed, I get the paperwork, although I didn’t lose any equipment on my deployment.
Water under the bridge, like I said I ended up the Reserves as an Air Reserve Technician where I excelled again and was being groomed for Superintendent positions and Numbered AF positions, when a post deployment heart attack in 2002 shot down those plans. But I retired in 2008 with my head held high….
Mike
USAF Retired
Sweet BeJeezus, she’s UGLY enough to make SHIT scream and run away!!!
I wonder what our old pal, Jack Shit would say about this broad…
Lizzy Borden was prettier:
:focal(407x160:408x161)/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/f6/cf/f6cf2496-05a9-43d7-b4cc-9383ecc70399/lizze-borden-letterboxed.jpg)
Are ya gonna ax her out? Don’t lose your head over her.
Perhaps she’s a relative of Hack Stone? A devotee of Molly Hatchet?
You’re Flirtin’ With Disaster there
Unfortunately,, you’re correct!!!
Was he ever a biological female? He and that Admiral-impersonator, Rachel Levine, should get a room for a long weekend. Hell, invite Ilhan too and she can provide faith tradition luv-u-wrong-time lube and aerosol disinfectant.
Ah, geez, now I have an ear-worm of the Doors doing “Love Me Two Times”.
Ooohhh. She looks like she’s loads of fun at the Command Christmas party.
If you look at her picture for about 5 seconds you can smell the crazy coming through your computer.
😂😂😂
Damn girl, you fuggly!
I’m gonna guess that being mean is all she had!!
I guess canning these clowns is not a “historical first” anymore.
Thankfully as a Infantryman, I only ever had to deal with a few female O’s, almost exclusively during my time in a brigade HHC. They were all O3 and lower so they were all without command time, just staff, so they were all easy to deal with, or it just might have been because Shitbird Spc Andy was the Colonels driver. I left the Army looooong before they started putting women into the Infantry. In about another 10-15 years, I don’t want to imagine what it will be like when the few female officer that suck around to become field grades start getting battalions/brigades.
Word.
My boys tell me its a goat fuck.
I’ll say this much, if she decides to be a dude, she won’t have much work to do. Damn. But seriously, and I know she was a DEI pick, but with so many outstanding examples of true leaders in our military history, why are there so many turds like this one?
Continuing the process of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, The new incoming Commander of the Howard is now the outgoing commander.
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2024/02/06/navy-fires-co-of-uss-howard-for-the-second-time-in-less-than-6-months/