Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller on Thursday said one service member could face a court-martial and another has been discharged following the military branch’s nude-photo-sharing scandal reveal in March.
Neller told Senate Armed Services Committee lawmakers that 65 individuals were identified in the scandal — in which service members allegedly shared nude photos of female Marines and veterans in the private Facebook group “Marines United,” — and that 59 were sent to their commands for possible disciplinary or administrative action.
Of the 59 individuals, seven have received non-judicial punishment, 20 have received “adverse administrative actions,” and one Marine has been administratively separated.
The service is also planning an Article 32 hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to warrant a court-martial on one suspect, but Neller did not say if it was a Marine.
“I've gone personally, as all of my leaders have gone, and spoken to literally tens of thousands of Marines and made them understand what their responsibilities are and I think more importantly . . . the social media things that we've seen have been — were just indicative of a problem within our culture that we did not properly respect or value the contributions of women in our Corps and that's the problem we have to fix,” he said.