A group of Navy sailors secretly used Starlink to check sports scores, social media and watch movies. They hid it from rank-and-file.

A U.S. Navy chief who wanted the internet so she and other enlisted officers could scroll social media, check sports scores and watch movies while deployed had an unauthorized Starlink satellite dish installed on a warship and lied to her commanding officer to keep it secret, according to investigators.

Internet access is restricted while a ship is underway to maintain bandwidth for military operations and to protect against cybersecurity threats.

The Navy quietly relieved Grisel Marrero, a command senior chief of the littoral combat ship USS Manchester, in August or September 2023, and released information on parts of the investigation this week.

    • @[email protected]English
      11•3 months ago

      Navy isn’t blameless either, the fact that they needed to do it at all means the Navy failed to provide a vital moral service even though they have plenty of options.

      I was in the Navy years ago, the official options for connecting on board when underway was an exercise in frustration just to get some time on the limited number of computers and when you did it was like 30 minutes you got with something around <1 Mbps.

      From what I hear from friends still in, nothing has improved in years.

        • @[email protected]English
          13•3 months ago

          First of all, chill lmao. Second, I’m not saying it’s like 50/50 its more like 95/5, they absolutely shouldn’t have done what they did but big navy is not entirely blameless. As chiefs they were probably at 15,16,17+ years in and had already dealt with most of the BS they could have ridden it out to retirement lol They’re going to get what they deserve.

          But had Big Navy actually cared about providing a decent upgraded official service to its sailors, this probably would never have happened.

          I was in the Navy and I know exactly how the service that is actually provided is and I’m entirely unsurprised by this. Actually I take that back, I am surprised that it took this long to happen. I also know exactly how leadership treats moral services for its sailors (especially sailors on board ship), if it costs money it’s going to be nothing but lip service. It’s a big reason I opted to separate as soon as I could.

          • @[email protected]English
            16•3 months ago

            I was confused at first trying to read your comment and just wanted to let you know that in this context it’s spelled ‘morale’. Like “The team had high morale.”

            The way you spelled it is like “That man has a good moral compass.”

            I don’t mean to be rude, just wanted to let you know.