THE NAVY ruled Friday that Holly Graf, the captain relieved of command of a guided missile cruiser in 2010 for cruelty toward her crew, will be permitted to retire with an honorable discharge. A panel of three admirals, after reviewing evidence against her, had recommended she receive the lower grade general discharge. Graf has served for 26 years and is the sister of Rear Admiral Robin Graf.

Juan Garcia, secretary for manpower and reserve affairs, said that a general discharge was not warranted given the “totality of her service.” A commenter at Navy Times wrote:

If her name had been Harry instead of Holly, I wonder what the outcome would have been?

The military blogger Glenn McDonald last summer compared disciplinary actions against Graf with those against a male petty officer, attributing the relative leniency against her to both rank and the feminist “sisterhood.” He wrote:

Let’s see now. On one hand, you have a Naval Academy graduate and captain (0-6) [Graf] of a guided missile cruiser who is so inept and sadistically cruel to her crew she is relieved of command despite being a female in the age of “political correctness.” Investigation shows she physically assaulted not one, but two subordinate officers on two separate occasions, and also contributed to millions of dollars in damage to ships unfortunately under her command.

On the other, we have a senior chief petty officer (E-8) on the aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush who is convicted at court-martial of throwing lower grades into lockers, wrestling and horseplay (stapling skin, grabbing junior sailors in a headlock) and soliciting a $1000 loan from a lower-ranking petty officer. He gets six months in the brig plus a bust in rank all the way down to E-4.

What’s the difference here? Holly Graf is a ring knocker from Annapolis with a “big sister” admiral and strong support from “The Sisterhood” (you know who they are) at the Pentagon. Kevin Curtis is a dim-witted bully who never should have made E-8 in the first place. But he’s an enlisted man. And there is your answer. The egregious double-standard of “justice” in today’s Navy. As obvious as an 800-pound gorilla parked right in the middle of your living room.

Graf was accused of cursing, spitting and throwing objects at crewmembers. According to Stars and Stripes:

Graf lost her command after an Inspector General report substantiated five claims leveled against her: breaches of ethics; use of her office for personal gain; dereliction of duty; and both verbal and physical assault.

The Inspector General investigation reported that Graf’s abusive patterns stretched back at least as far as her tour as commander aboard the USS Winston Churchill in 2003.

The 50-page report is full of expletive-laden passages attributed to Graf by several crewmembers interviewed during the investigation.

On one occasion, when a female crewmember asked Graf if she considered herself a mentor, Graf responded, “Don’t come to me with your problems, you’re a [expletive] department head.”

The same crewmember wrote that Graf later threatened her by saying, “I can’t express how mad you make me without getting violent.”

Another crewmember said Graf commonly asked her bridge watch team, “What are you, [expletive] stupid?”

Graf regularly berated both officers and senior-ranking chief petty officers in front of enlisted sailors, contributing to a lack of respect for the chain of command, the report found.

While a commander aboard the Churchill, a sailor informed her that the weather was too poor to recover a helicopter onboard.

“I thought you flew a [expletive] all-weather aircraft,” said Graf, according to the report. “Now [expletive] me to tears.”

In another case, a subordinate claimed he was made to stand in a corner as a “timeout” in front of fellow sailors.

Further discussion follows the Stars and Stripes article. Numerous posts about Graf can be found at the blog of Susan Katz Keating.

                                                          — Comments —

Roger G. writes:

John Paul Jones said:

It is by no means enough that an officer of the Navy should be a capable mariner. He must be that, of course, but also a great deal more. He should be as well a gentleman of liberal education, refined manners, punctilious courtesy, and the nicest sense of personal honor.

He should be the soul of tact, patience, justice, firmness, kindness, and charity. No meritorious act of a subordinate should escape his attention or be left to pass without its reward, even if the reward is only a word of approval. Conversely, he should not be blind to a single fault in any subordinate, though at the same time, he should be quick and unfailing to distinguish error from malice, thoughtfulness from incompetency, and well meant shortcomings from heedless or stupid.

In one word, every commander should keep constantly before him the great truth, that to be well obeyed, he must be perfectly esteemed.

 I learned of this quote from reading Starship Troopers at the age of 14. Author Robert Heinlein was a graduate of the Naval Academy, and I believe all plebes are required to memorize it.

Laura writes:

A female commander can’t be a gentleman and she can’t be a lady. She’s in a bind.

Please follow and like us: