Marquie Little, an aviation boatswain’s mate in the U.S. Navy, was recently discharged from duty following charges of making a false statement, destruction of government property and disorderly conduct.
In November 2017, Little claimed that his ship bunk was vandalized with graffiti of racial slurs. He had posted pictures of the damage on Facebook, which went viral.
Little said another person aboard the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush wrote racial slurs on his bed wall and trashed his rack.
“I proudly serve the Navy and this is what I’m receiving in return,” the sailor wrote in the Facebook post, which has since been deleted. “Somebody knows something.”
However, a Navy investigation has determined that Little staged the entire incident himself, according to a copy of the investigation obtained by Navy Times.
Little claims he did not stage the incident and that a proper investigation wasn’t conducted.
“In my opinion, (Little) staged this incident in an attempt to avoid having to provide a Family Care Plan and to get off the ship before its next underway period,” a Navy investigator wrote in a copy of the investigation obtained by Navy Times via a Freedom of Information request.
“There’s no proof, there’s no witnesses, there’s no facts in the investigation stating I’ve done so. The investigation is based solely off the opinion of other people, which happens to be the people that dislike me,” Little said.
“It’s not my first time being called a word such as that,” Little had said in a phone interview after the incident, Navy Times had reported. “It puzzled me as to who would do it and why they would do it.”
Navy Commander David Hecht said the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) found inconsistencies in Little’s story.
In an email provided to Navy Times, Hecht wrote:
“NCIS supported command investigation following a claim of racially motivated vandalism aboard the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush has determined that the alleged victim staged the incident himself. The United States Navy does not tolerate racial discrimination of any form and the well-being of our sailors is our top priority. Although the claims were ultimately determined to be unfounded, the chain of command used the incident to provide additional training to the crew and re-emphasized that vandalism and racism will not be tolerated. It has also been reiterated to the ship that the chain of command has an open door policy for reporting incidents of misconduct. The sailor who made these false claims has received appropriate administrative actions and additional counseling and training. He will remain a member of the crew and continue to perform his military duties.”
Little denied staging the vandalism, saying that NCIS had not conducted a proper investigation.
