Navy Scandal 34 story has been making headlines recently for its shocking details involving one of the most affluent nuclear power training sites of the navy. The Navy Scandal 34 story concerns the involuntary separation of at least 34 sailors after they were found participating in a massive cheating ring which has apparently been operating under the military radar for the last seven years.
According to USNI News, the Navy Scandal 34 story has now resulted in the expulsion of at least 34 sailors from the Navy. Also, the admiral in charge of the Navy's nuclear reactors program told The Associated Press that another 10 sailors remain under criminal investigation since the unveiling of the cheating scandal.
Although the Navy Scandal 34 story was thought to have been confined to a single unit at Charleston and was not known to commanding officers, the misbehaviour had apparently been occurring since at 2007, said Adm. John M. Richardson, director of naval reactors.
The exact date of the cheating scandal's had however not been pinpointed.
Richardson said in an AP interview, "There was never any question" that the reactors were being operated safely. Still, the Navy Scandal 34 story is a clear violation of Navy ethics, he said.
According to The Examiner, the cheating scandal was first uncovered in February this year as a sailor reported the ring to authorities on Feb. 2. The following day, the chief of naval operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert and head of Naval Reactors Adm. Richardson held a press conference to tackle the problem, reports USNI News.
The Navy Scandal 34 story rocked the Navy, reports the AP, but until now, details had been kept under wraps while senior Navy officials determined the full scope of the scandal, reportedly including whether it was also happening in other places, as well as the root causes and possible solutions.
Ordered by Richardson and led by Rear Adm. Kenneth M. Perry, an extensive investigation found how the Navy Scandal 34 story came to be. Apparently, the sailors were able to cheat through an electronic master file of "engineering watch supervisor." Tests and answers were reporteldy illegally removed from a Navy computer "sometime before 2007."
No names were identified by investigators as to who took it or when.
Called the "Pencil Files," the set of test and answer keys were used by the cheaters as these files were secretly passed via personal email, compact disks, thumb drives and other non-official electronic systems.
According to Richardson, the Pencil Files had all 600 answers to questions of five sets of tests.
Apart from that, a "Pencil Number" was also reportedly passed to tipped to sailors by identifying which of the five exams they would be given.
The report said, "The result was a deliberate scheme to cheat ..."
Also, exam security was weak since the five tests used were given in a predictable rotating order. The questions had also not been changed since 2004, even though they are required to be changed frequently.
The Navy Scandal 34 cheating conspiracy was held at the Goose Creek nuclear training center near Charleston, SC, according to The Examiner. Students there are trained in nuclear reactor operations in preparation for service on any of the Navy's 83 nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers.
Meanwhile, according to the Navy, none of the instructors or students involved in the Navy Scandal 34 cheating conspiracy had actual involvement in handling nuclear weapons.
A total of 78 enlisted sailors were implicated, while the 32 other sailors who were exonerated were the ones initially implicated.
According to the Navy, there are a total of 16,000 nuclear trained sailors operating the reactors which powers their aircraft carriers and submarines.
Navy Scandal 34 cheating story is reportedly unlike the Air Force exam-cheating scandal which made headlines in January at a Montana base where, according to the AP, examiners operated land-based nuclear-armed missiles. The sailors involved in the current Navy cheating had no responsibility in handling nuclear weapons.
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