The US Navy says an African-American sailor who claimed that a fellow shipmate had vandalized his bunk with racial slurs actually faked the whole incident.
Marquie Little, 27, an African-American aviation boatswain’s mate airman aboard the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush claimed in a Facebook post that one of his shipmates had vandalized his sleeping area with the word ‘n*****’ and trashing it.
In the November 15 post, which was apparently written under an alias Facebook account and has since been shared 20,500 times, Little had written, ‘I proudly serve the Navy and this is what I’m receiving in return,’ the NavyTimes.com reported.
African-American sailor Marquie Little, 27, posted pictures of what he claimed was vandalism of his bunk aboard the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush on November 15
The pictures, showing that his bunk had been trashed and the word ‘n*****’ scrawled everywhere, went viral and prompted an NCIS investigation
Shortly after the post, Little told NavyTimes that he worried about the vandalism and seeing the vandal out and about in town. ‘I constantly have to look who’s giving me the side eye,’ Little said at the time.
On Friday, however, Commander Dave Hecht, a spokesman for Naval Air Force Atlantic, said that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) investigated the ‘claims of racially-motivated vandalism’ and discovered inconsistencies in Little’s account of what happened, determining that he ‘staged the incident himself.’
Hecht declined to name the sailor who made the claims, because he had not been charged with a crime, but noted that the sailor would continue to serve aboard the George H.W. Bush and had ‘received appropriate administrative actions and additional counseling and training.’
The NavyTimes said that Little, via text message on Friday, denied staging the vandalism and said that NCIS’ investigation was not properly done.
On Friday, the Navy said that they found inconsistencies with Little’s (pictured) statements and determined that the vandalism had been staged
Little will continue to serve aboard the George H.W. Bush (pictured). He denied that he staged the vandalism and claimed that he had nothing to gain by doing so
Little added that he had ‘nothing to gain from doing such an incident but I have everything to lose.’
Even though NCIS had proven Little’s claims to be false, Hecht said that the Navy was using the incident as the basis for giving the crew additional training and emphasizing that the Navy does not tolerate vandalism or racism of any kind.
‘The well-being of our Sailors is our top priority,’ Hecht noted, adding that the Navy has an ‘open door policy for reporting incidents of misconduct.’