Norfolk, Va. - The commanding officer, executive officer and command master chief of the Norfolk-based USS James E. Williams were responsible for a toxic command climate that contributed to the suicide of a sailor onboard the destroyer in June, according to a report.
Former commanding officer Cmdr. Curtis Calloway, former James E. Williams Executive Officer and prospective commanding officer Cmdr. Ed Handley, and Command Master Chief Travis Biswell were found in violation of various articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice in October.
The Navy Times obtained a 313-page report that found the command triad contributed to the suicide of Boatswain's Mate Seaman Yeshabel Villot-Carrasco.
CMC Travis Biswell, failed to control a chief's mess that fostered a "culture of retribution" where sailors were afraid to report to their senior leaders for fear of their chiefs. Furthermore, the report found neither the CO, Cmdr. Curtis Calloway, nor the XO, Cmdr. Ed Handley, did enough to address the poor atmosphere on board.
Calloway's failure to hold chief petty officers accountable, concluded Carrier Strike Group 12 boss, Rear Adm. Andrew Lewis, "enabled a culture that empowered CPOs to target, belittle and bully junior Sailors."
Lewis concluded that Calloway failed to identify or correct the problems.
"Cmdr. Calloway was either willfully blind to the problems on board his ship or he was in an extremely negligent state of denial," Lewis wrote in a Sept. 26 endorsement. "He owned the culture that, I believe, contributed to the suicide of [the boatswain's mate]."
The report found that Villot-Carrasco had been singled out for punishment in a clear case of reprisal after filing an equal opportunity complaint that alleged she was being singled out because of her gender.
The report also cited alcohol problems with Biswell and a possible sexual assault by multiple chief petty officers:
A separate enclosure alleged that Biswell, the CMC, was getting drunk "in every liberty port." In one port visit in Norway, several sailors claim to have seen the CMC take his shirt off and twirl it around his head.
In Seychelles, he claims he had about seven beers during a "Beer on the Pier" party, then got on the 1MC after and told everyone on the ship to "get in their f------- racks," which neither Calloway nor Handley reported up the chain of command.
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Even more troubling, multiple chief petty officers are accused of sexually assaulting a junior sailor in a hotel in Seychelles while she was too intoxicated to consent. The sailor is suspected to have been impregnated during the assault, the report claims, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating.
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