What the Chaplain Thought

NAVY black and BLUE story:

December 4, 2010 -NORFOLK - The Virginian-Pilot, Testimony: Senior chief used pepper spray, cuffs, stapler in abuse

Among the accusations made against the former head of the security department of the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) during a preliminary hearing Friday, a Senior Chief Petty Officer is charged with more than a dozen counts of abusing junior sailors and disobeying orders.

Pepper-spraying two subordinates while they showered. Handcuffing sailors and kneeing them in a technique learned to subdue suspects. ...Stapling junior sailors' skin. ... regularly used an office stapler to staple into his skin, mostly on his back and upper thigh. Curtis stapled him that way more than 100 times,...

One of the scariest incidents he experienced was being strangled inside his office. When Edmonds entered the room, he said, Curtis grabbed a 4 -foot-long elastic exercise band, wrapped it around his neck and pulled it tight.

"The longer he held it, the more I couldn't breathe," Edmonds said. His vision began getting hazy, and he couldn't speak. Curtis stopped only when another master-at-arms shoved the senior chief into a door, Edmonds testified.

An angry e-mail even came from the ship's chaplain who thought the Senior Chief was out of line.

Was it a red stapler?

Submarines are always silent and strange.