Navy Capt. Loften Thornton; chaplain canned
Navy Captain Loften Thornton, a chaplain assigned to Headquarters and Service Battalion at Marine Corps Forces Pacific, was fired when a video of him engaged in a sexual tryst in a New Orleans club triggered an investigation into the chaplain’s conduct. From Fox News;
USA Today, citing two defense officials, reported that authorities were examining video that showed Thornton having sex with the woman at the Crown & Anchor English Pub in the Algiers Point neighborhood of New Orleans. The bar is located across the Mississippi River from the city’s French Quarter, and near the Marine Forces Reserve in Algiers, where Thornton was stationed.
The owner of the bar told USA Today that he was cooperating with authorities, but would not comment further.
The paper reported that Thornton had been a Navy chaplain since 1992.
From MSN;
The Marines fired Navy Capt. Loften Thornton on March 20 for “loss of trust and confidence,” said Marine Lt. Col. Ted Wong, a spokesman for Marine Reserve. Thornton had been chaplain for Marine Forces Reserve based in New Orleans.
Category: Marine Corps
Dahell. The bar looks like one can catch a disease just by staring at it for too long. I wonder who ratted him out. Gotta be something more to this.
USA Today says it happened at some picnic tables near the entrance, not in their establishment. (USA Today link from the Fox News article above.
“The owner of the pub, Neil Timms, said the incident took place in front of the pub by the road near some picnic tables. Timms is cooperating with authorities, he said. The bar is a five-minute drive from the Marine Reserve facility.
Women and seamen don’t mix.
Think you misspelled that
Can’t a guy just tend to one of his flock without everyone getting all in an uproar??
Jeeze!!
That’s the problem … he’s out there flocking around.
As a marriage councilor; he’s gone too far.
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me
That is just WRONG!
LOL
Grunt, I am going start a petition to have Jonn start moderating you for failing to provide a spew warning due to that comment.
Bastard.
Navy Captain Loften Thornton is just another in a long line of clergymen who have fallen to their own humanity.
I hurt for him, and his family, and those for whom he was chaplain.
Clergy are, and should be, held to a higher standard. But by the same token Clergy should also be all the more cautious – any Christian is nonetheless a sinner saved by grace.
He messed up. He will have to pay the price. But I hurt for him and his.
Well said, sir. I only hope that by his actions he hasn’t hung a millstone about his neck.
He fucked up the same way ‘ol Jimmy Swaggart did, only he didn’t do it in a rent-by-the-hour motel room.
Yep. And it wasn’t just Swaggart at the time, unfortunately.
Which makes Billy Graham’s self-imposed rule about being alone with a woman all that more understandable. He maintained an awareness of his own vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, preachers are not immune to the temptations of power and pride.
Re Reverend Graham, I never counseled, talked with, was alone with a female at any time unless circumstances made it impossible not to do so.
I feel for the Captain and especially his family. His career is shot. Doubtful he retires as an 0-6. Will he be allowed to retire? I’m going to be watching this. Hard to believe he would screw up in this manner. Mind boggling lapse of judgement. I’m very saddened by this.
Well, if someone is gonna lecture me about sins of the flesh, he might as well know what the fuck he’s talking about, or so he thought.
Yeah, not so much, padre.
What happens in New Orleans apparently doesn’t stay in New Orleans…
Assigned to Marine Forces Reserve and wearing the Fleet Marine Force Chaplain insignia.
Thanks for setting a bright, shining example for those young Marines placed in your charge, Chaps.
— sigh —
One of the most terrifying passages in the Bible is the one that speaks of how pastors, teachers, deacons, and other Church leaders will be judged more severely.
Having been, at one time or another, in each of those positions and knowing my own life, it is not an experience to which I am looking forward with eager expectation.
But I remember a story told by a lady who was a youth leader while I was in the high-school group in our church. She was a new Christian, and one Sunday the music director stood up, announced his resignation, and walked out with a woman who was not his wife – then the pastor stood up and announced his resignation and walked out with another woman not his wife. As this new-Christian young lady was trying to comfort the pastor’s legal wife, the pastor’s wife kept assuring her: “this doesn’t mean that God has failed, just that a man has failed.”
But I pray that before I fail in such a way that God will just strike me down.
I think when Jesus discussed ministering to the sinners he didn’t indicate that fornication in a dive bar was what he had in mind for those representing his words to the populace.
That pub is an old school go and get hammered pub, no food menu just drinks…not a bad place to find sinners if one wants to minister to them…but again fornication was probably on the things NOT to do list.
None of us are perfect, but not placing oneself directly in front of what tempts one is probably a good starting point, especially for a chaplain.
Strip everybody naked in a closed room and just watch the morality unfold.
While I will have to view the video to reach a conclusion, perhaps more than once for clarity, WTF is the big deal as long as he is not a Catholic Chaplain? I don’t recall reading anyplace, “Thou Shalt Not Get A Little Strange”. Bad judgment for sure but cut the man some slack.
I’m with you CM. Finally, a Chapo we can believe in and what do the jar heads do? Shit can him. “Hey Chaps, we’re headed down to Subic City after services, you wanna tag along? Subic City? He’ll yeah, I am so there”. Nice.
Actually, I suspect the Marines canned him for being caught in public without two road guards and someone to count Cadence as he did the deed.
Well, last time I checked the Bible . . . if he’s married there’s that pesky little Commandment that says something to the effect of, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” And if he’s not Catholic, I’d guess he’s very likely married.
And in that case, there’s also UCMJ Article 125. Circumstances here (“doin’ the deed” in a public enough place to be caught in the act on video) are such that they almost certainly “reflect discredit on the Naval service”.
I’m thinking he’ll be lucky to retire as an O6. But his DOR to O6 may be early enough to save him.
Either way, he can kiss continued service goodbye. And unless his spouse is truly of the forgiving type, he might be kissing his marriage goodbye too – as well as up to 1/2 of his retirement pay each month.
Hope she was worth it, CAPT.
At least he was with a consenting adult female and not an Altar Boy….
Actually looks like my kinda place,
https://www.facebook.com/CrownandAnchorEnglishPub/photos/a.563975993627395.127326.116401458384853/1385978471427139/?type=3&theater
can somebody explain to me the methodology of “firing” him, absent a Courts Martial, and why?
Like I said, there has to be more to this. For what’s been reported, that a presumably unmarried adult male got some in a bar, this is over the top.
But is it? Doesn’t he still hold his Commission in the USN? I don’t know. Perhaps the USMC just said, “Thanks, but you aren’t working for us anymore.”
He likely will be subject to an Article 15 (Captain’s Mast) for conduct unbecoming. He should have taken it behind closed doors where there were no cameras, and he would still have his job. He will be submitting his retirement papers after he takes NJP hit.
It’s the public nature of it. Conduct unbecoming/indecent acts. If it can be videoed it can be seen by someone.
In the USMC/ Navy, and I’m sure all the services “firing” someone ( Removing them their billet) is an administrative move on part of the command that can be done at the whim of a commander.
“Firing” is a civilian term that holds a different meaning.
You can be relieved for cause, but unlike being fired you still draw pay and benefits until a judicial hearing .
CG MARFORRES kicks him out of his current position (removed from his post), sends him back to the Navy, same as firing a commander for loss of confidence in leadership ability. Generals have that unilateral authority. It would take a courts martial to boot him from the service entirely, but ‘fired’ in this case means lost his assignment.
Pants down. Got caught.
Chaplains are supposed to be counselors, not idiots. He knew better, but paid no attention to “better”. Counselors are supposed to be trustworthy, above all others, and he isn’t.
Counselors and saints? No, just counselors. One can give good counsel and then not follow it himself.
Never do or say something in public that could come back to bite you in the ass later. Especially –ESPECIALLY– in this age of cell phone cameras and the internet.
It must have been a bad ice cube!
What Church does he belong to? I want to join.
From what I read he is USNR if folks are commenting from MARFORES in New Orleans. If he is assigned to MARFORPAC H&S Bn in Hawaii then he must be on active duty as a reservist. Most of us active duty physicians, until 2006 were USNR also until they made us all USN at one time. To have obtained the FMFQO device on his breast he must have been assigned to a USMC Command or Program 9 reservist long enough to qualify. Note that there are no crossed rifles under the FMFQO crest. That is because the Chaplain Corps has their own device, sans any weaponry.Not cool for them.
With that said, he has really done a career FUBAR. I recall the Chaplain Corps to be really autolytic & carnivorous as far as infighting of denominations, assignments, promotions and retention. Most dangerous were the Chaplain wives. The O’Club bar was deserving of imminent danger pay when the wives arrived after getting the bad news hubby wasn’t selected for promotion.
Life Lesson, “95% of problems in life are usually self induced” CAPT Bones USN 9ret)
‘a video of him engaged in a sexual tryst in a New Orleans club’
Sharkman sends Bravo-Zulu to our wandering chaplain.
Pathetic, throw away a fantastic career, and become and abomination in the sight of God….he ran the race this far, couldn’t hold out til the end? sad!!