This feels like a bad joke, but sadly, it isn’t. In May of 2010, we posted about “Women Submariners – Pioneers Facing Many Challenges.” Of the various challenges we expected women on submarines would have to face, secret shower videos were not the first to come to mind. Now, there are reports that female officers, serving aboard the USS Wyoming ballistic missile submarine, were secretly videotaped undressing to take showers. The videos were then distributed to other ships in the fleet.  News of the videos  emerged when an officer from another submarine received copies and reported their existence.  A 24 year old second class petty officer is reported to be under investigation for making and distributing the videos.  The petty officer is assigned to Trident Training Facility, near the submarine’s homeport in Kings Bay, Ga. according to the incident report.

Lt. Leslie Hubbell, spokeswoman for Submarine Group 10 in Kings Bay, said in a written statement that “the Navy became aware of the alleged criminal activity in November 2014 and promptly began an investigation, which is ongoing.”  She also said that Navy would hold individuals involved accountable if the allegations prove factual but said it would be inappropriate to comment further while the investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service is ongoing.  Some of the officers victimized by the secret video are upset with the Navy leadership’s handling of the situation, citing a lack of sensitivity toward those affected, which sadly is also not a great surprise.

The discovery of the videos comes just weeks before the first women naval officers are due to report aboard two Virginia-class attack submarines, the USS Virginia and USS Minnesota in Groton, Conn. There are now a total of 14 crews with female officers on three Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarines and four guided-missile subs.

Navy: Women secretly filmed in shower aboard sub