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nitpicker

(7,153 posts)
Sun Jun 7, 2020, 07:12 PM Jun 2020

Naval Academy Alumni Board Of Trustees Member Resigns After Facebook Outburst

https://news.usni.org/2020/06/07/naval-academy-alumni-board-of-trustee-member-resigns-after-facebook-ouburst

Naval Academy Alumni Board Of Trustees Member Resigns After Facebook Outburst

By: Ben Werner

June 7, 2020 8:07 AM • Updated: June 7, 2020 1:48 PM

A member of the U.S. Naval Academy’s influential alumni association’s board of trustees and treasurer of his local alumni chapter was asked to resign Saturday after posting a live conversation to Facebook disparaging the academy’s admission of African Americans, Asian Americans and women.

Retired Capt. Scott Bethmann, USNA class of 1980, may not have realized his comments posted to Facebook Live. In the conversation with his wife, reviewed by USNI News, Bethmann used racial slurs against African Americans and made negative comments regarding the Naval Academy’s admission of African Americans, Asian Americans and women.

Current and former naval officers quickly noticed the comments. Some, apparently commented to his Facebook page while he was still recording, according to his comments.
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Demovictory9

(32,457 posts)
1. the recording is all over twitter... Imagine him & his wife sitting through naval officer graduatio
Sun Jun 7, 2020, 07:15 PM
Jun 2020

ns. clapping when appropriate. smiles plastered on their faces.. maybe shaking the hands of POC and women graduating officers... while thinking

"black bitch!". "f***Ng asians" "women ruining things...".

Response to nitpicker (Original post)

RockRaven

(14,974 posts)
4. He's not the only person in such a position to think that stuff, he's just the one who
Sun Jun 7, 2020, 07:20 PM
Jun 2020

said it while being recorded...

Good riddance.

onetexan

(13,043 posts)
11. somehow they always manage to show their true colors, don't they?
Sun Jun 7, 2020, 07:39 PM
Jun 2020

In the least this one was caught and forced to resign. Good riddance is correct.

dalton99a

(81,516 posts)
7. Live on Facebook for more than 30 minutes:
Sun Jun 7, 2020, 07:23 PM
Jun 2020
In the video, he’s also heard saying: “The white m*****f*****s can’t say anything. That’s the point we’re making here, Nancy.”

In the recording, Bethmann's wife, Nancy, refers to the black community. The couple talks about women and minority groups who serve in the military.

“F****** Asians from China who love to steal all of our intellectual property,” she’s heard saying in the video.

The video appears to end when Bethmann begins reading comments on his phone.

https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2020/06/06/jacksonville-area-naval-academy-alumni-member-resigns-apologizes-after-racial-comments-aired-on-facebook-live/









onetexan

(13,043 posts)
12. Geez, more white entitlement. Good riddance. This man should be stripped of his military honorable
Sun Jun 7, 2020, 07:45 PM
Jun 2020

discharge and his military retirement benefits taken away. Disgraceful!!

Journeyman

(15,036 posts)
8. When I was but a little boy my momma would rock me in the cradle and say . . .
Sun Jun 7, 2020, 07:23 PM
Jun 2020

Don't ever put something on paper you wouldn't want to see in print.

She cautioned this to protect me from youthful exuberance and immature outbursts, and it's served me well ever since. She didn't expect me to be cruel, or nasty, but she knew children often blurt things a more mature mind would suppress.

Guess that lesson was never taught in the Bethmann home. Too busy teaching bigotry and foolishness would be my guess.

Cerridwen

(13,258 posts)
9. Class of '80? Was he at Tailhook?
Sun Jun 7, 2020, 07:26 PM
Jun 2020
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailhook_scandal

The Tailhook scandal was a series of incidents where more than 100 United States Navy and U.S. Marine Corps aviation officers were alleged to have sexually assaulted 83 women and seven men, or otherwise engaged in "improper and indecent" conduct at the Las Vegas Hilton in Las Vegas, Nevada.[1]

The events took place at the 35th Annual Tailhook Association Symposium from September 5 to 8, 1991. A report conducted by the U.S. Department of Defense's Inspector General disclosed misogynistic photos including T-shirts worn by officers saying that "WOMEN ARE PROPERTY".[2] Sexual assault reports that were highlighted included women in the hallway trying to get to their rooms on the 3rd floor but forced to walk the "gauntlet", in which hordes of drunken naval officers would line both sides of a hallway and sexually assault women who walked by them. The aftermath resulted in sweeping changes throughout all military services in the Department of Defense regarding attitudes and policies toward women. The scandal ended the careers of Secretary of the Navy Henry Garrett and Chief of Naval Operations Frank Kelso, both of whom attended the convention.

The investigations led to some officers being disciplined or refused advancement in rank. Military officers and observers have alleged that flag officers attending the symposium were not held accountable for knowingly allowing the behavior in question to occur. Military critics claimed that the scandal highlighted a hostile attitude in U.S. military culture towards women in the areas of sexual harassment, sexual assault and equal treatment of women in career advancement and opportunity.

The investigation also resulted in recommendations made by the ad hoc committee chaired by Barbara S. Pope. Following this report, in April 1993, Secretary of Defense Les Aspin announced a revised policy on the assignment of women in the armed forces: The services were to allow women to compete for assignments in combat aircraft; the Navy was to open additional ships to women and draft a proposal for Congress to remove existing legislative barriers to the assignment of women to combat vessels. The Army and Marine Corps were to look for opportunities for women to serve in such components as field artillery and air defense. On July 4, 1993, President Bill Clinton announced the nomination of Sheila E. Widnall to become the first female service secretary.

...more at link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailhook_scandal

pamela

(3,469 posts)
14. Class of '80 had the first females.
Sun Jun 7, 2020, 07:59 PM
Jun 2020

A friend of mine was one of those four first female cadets. A lot of the males in that class made things pretty tough on those women.

keithbvadu2

(36,829 posts)
17. But he found the time.
Sun Jun 7, 2020, 09:02 PM
Jun 2020

"There is never a time when it is appropriate to use derogatory terms when speaking about our fellow man."

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