The Navy is disciplining at least two members of SEAL Team 4 after racist memes, including one depicting slavery, were shared in a Signal chat to a Black fellow SEAL, two sources familiar with the situation told CBS News.
The memes were initially shared several years ago, but resurfaced recently after the Black sailor who was targeted reported them. The SEAL who reported the memes, citing racism and bullying, previously had his Trident — which is given to SEALs — revoked, but the Navy has since reinstated it, the sources said.
The memes were developed by two enlisted SEALs based in Virginia who now face non-judicial punishment and punitive letters in their files, The Associated Press reported. Both actions can be career-ending, or can result in demotions or loss of pay.
Platoon and team leaders are also facing administrative actions, including disciplinary letters in their files, after a probe found they did not adequately address the sailor’s concerns about racist behavior and that the decision to revoke his qualifications was flawed, according to The AP.
“This was a very shocking case of explicit and repeated racist memes directed at our client in a platoon-wide text thread,” the sailor’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, told The AP. “They modified his face in photos to look like a monkey and portrayed him as a chained slave on a slave ship, among others.”
Parlatore praised Rear Adm. Jamie Sands, head of Naval Special Warfare, and his staff for taking swift action to “investigate, reverse the negative repercussions that our client received, and move to hold people accountable.”
A spokesperson for Naval Special Warfare Command told CBS News on Tuesday that the Navy “investigated serious allegations of unprofessional conduct within one of our commands” and “accountability actions are ongoing.”
“We are dedicated to fostering a climate of dignity and respect, and after conducting a thorough and fair investigation, we will hold anyone found responsible of misconduct accountable,” the spokesperson said.
A defense official told The AP that the sailor filed more than a dozen specific complaints about racist behavior and about half were substantiated. As leaders began to look into the complaints, a second sailor — who is White — also complained about bullying by other platoon members. That amplified the broader concerns about the command climate and the later findings of leadership failures.
This is the latest significant investigation into behavior issues and command failures at Naval Special Warfare Command. And it underscores racial concerns that are not new to the special warfare leaders.
Commando forces across the services — particularly the officers — tend to be far less diverse than the military as a whole. Leaders in recent years have tried to attract a wider array of recruits in order to develop a more diverse force.
Those efforts, however, could be threatened now, as the Trump administration and Defense Department leaders have made it a priority to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the military and the government as a whole.
As of March 2021, a full 95% of all SEAL and combatant-craft crew officers were White and just 2% were Black, according to Naval Special Warfare statistics provided to The AP. The enlisted ranks were only slightly more diverse.
Those numbers are starkly different from the overall Navy population, where about 40% of the enlisted force and 24% of its officers are non-White.
Acting Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told CBS News: “Secretary [Pete] Hegseth’s work to rid the Department of Defense from the previous administration’s divisive DEI agenda is vital to ensuring that racism has no place in our Armed Forces. Giving our service members preferential treatment on the basis of race —in violation of federal law —is the very definition of racism. Secretary Hegseth is refocusing our military on merit and putting ability before immutable characteristics again.”
Other recent investigations also found training and command problems.
Last October, a highly critical review by the Navy found that two Navy SEALs drowned as they tried to climb aboard a ship carrying illicit Iranian-made weapons to Yemen because of glaring training failures and a lack of understanding about what to do after falling into deep, turbulent waters.
And in 2023, a Navy investigation into the death of a SEAL candidate a year earlier concluded that the training program was plagued by widespread failures in medical care, poor oversight and the use of performance-enhancing drugs that have increased the risk of injury and death to those seeking to become elite commandos.
