Female Soldier's Promotion Ceremony Took Lewd Turn

"Multiple Soldiers immediately reported the behavior," an Army rep made clear. Good thing. The Army Times reports on the story of a former Louisiana National Guard officer who was convicted by a general court-martial after allegedly "motorboating" a female subordinate. The incident reportedly occurred during her promotion ceremony to sergeant while they were deployed to Jordan in May of last year. Capt. Billy Joe Crosby Jr. pleaded guilty at trial in a deal that saw the abusive sexual contact charge against him dropped (leaving assault- and conduct-related charges) and allowed him to collect his retirement. After serving a 30-day confinement, Crosby on March 31 retired.

Crosby allegedly twice told his subordinate that he planned to "motorboat" her during her promotion ceremony "because the Army Combat Uniform’s chest-placed rank patch was intended for such actions," per the Army Times, and allegedly made comments to another officer about the woman's breasts. The woman reportedly asked Crosby that no ceremony take place, but per court documents, Crosby allegedly entered her space the following day and ordered her to stand up. Crosby then "placed the rank in front of her chest, leaned in (to) grab the rank with his teeth...then placed his face between [the junior soldier]’s breasts...[and] vigorously moved his head from side to side between [her] breasts while still holding the rank with his teeth."

Stars and Stripes reports the plea agreement was signed in November, but documents were released by the Army Wednesday after an image of the findings in the case was posted to Reddit, spurring questions. It adds the soldiers were in Jordan to contribute to US efforts to counter ISIS in Iraq and Syria. "I was accused of a lot more than I done, and I pled guilty to what I did," Crosby told Stars and Stripes. (More strange stuff stories.)