Two Marines have been officially disciplined for making ill-advised comments on social media, a sign of things to come in the Marine Corps following the Marines United scandal.
Two active-duty Marines (one a non-commissioned officer and the other junior enlisted) of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment had made disparaging comments about an enlisted Marine on social media. As a result, they were reduced in rank and pay, according to an official who spoke under the condition of anonymity.
2/4 Marine commander Lieutenant Colonel Warren Cook released a statement on the matter.
“The Marines and Sailors of 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines do not tolerate personal attacks on their Marines, online or elsewhere,” Cook said. “This kind of behavior flies in the face of our service’s core values and this organization refuses to condone it.”
The comments reportedly disparaged a female Marine that had completed infantry training.
The wave of punishments is the result of a pendulum shift in the aftermath of the Marines United incident, where explicit photos of female Marines and civilians were circulated among members of the Facebook group.
“This is a good a start,” said Erin Kirk-Cuomo, a Marine veteran and co-founder of Not in My Marine Corps. The organization is composed of active-duty and veteran service members bent on ending sexual assault and sexual harassment in the armed services.
“These guys were advocating for the assault of women and they’re being punished,” she said. “The Marine Corps is taking swift action, and that’s exactly what we need.”
According to the Washington Post, legislation has been introduced by mainly -Democratic lawmakers -that would amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice for harsher punishments involving servicemembers who distributed private sexual images.
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