A U.S. Marine veteran has come forward following the scandal involving nude pictures of women, service members, and veterans being posted to a private Facebook page by fellow Marines.
The female combat veteran spoke with NBC 7 about how she was the victim of a similar incident several years ago. NBC 7 is not identifying the Marine who said provocative images were once posted without her knowledge on a similar Facebook page.
“It's degrading,” she said. “People aren't going to look at me as a professional.”
The U.S. Marine Corps and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service are investigating 100 Marines for the postings on the private Facebook page "Marines United." The postings were exposed by a Marine Veteran who runs the non-profit military news website The War Horse.
The pictures began to surface after two women Marines qualified for the Infantry unit at Camp Lejeune in early January.
While Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Robert Neller said he could not comment on an on-going investigation, he did say in a statement, “I expect every Marine to demonstrate the highest integrity and loyalty to fellow Marines at all times, on duty, off-duty, and online. I expect Marines to give their all to be the best human beings, teammates, and Marines possible."
But the Marine veteran NBC 7 spoke with said she doubts the incident will be investigated thoroughly.
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“This has been going on for years," she said. “They haven't done anything with it before, so I don't see them doing anything with it now.”
But combat Marine veteran, Nathan Fletcher told NBC 7 that it is time the culture in the Marine Corps. established by an older generation, has to change.
“We have to make sure that the standard to set that everyone adheres to and it's a standard that we are proud of marines say that's the Marine Corps I know an honor," Fletcher said.
The social media accounts behind the sharing have been deleted by Facebook and Google at the Marine Corps' request.
An internal Marine Corps document obtained by The Associated Press says a former Marine maintained the Google Drive and that it had a following of 30,000.
A Marine proven to have posted an explicit photo of another person could potentially be charged with violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the internal document asserted. A Marine who directly participates in, encourages or condones such actions could also be subjected to criminal proceedings or adverse administrative actions, according to the document.
