When Americans enlist in the US Navy, they are signing up to make specific sacrifices for their country. Navy sailors face long deployments and stay at sea for anywhere from 90 days to 15 months. During that time, the sailors face restricted internet access. There are very good reasons for this deprivation, but a group of senior chiefs on board the littoral combat ship Manchester didn’t care when they deployed in April 2023. They installed a Starlink internet dish on top of the ship so that they could have a private Wi-Fi network, which they used to watch dumb Netflix shows, check sports scores, and chat with family members back home.

Rank-and-file sailors made the sacrifice that was expected of them during deployment by not having the same level of connectivity they enjoy while at home. Meanwhile, these chiefs were endangering national security and naval operational security, just so they could watch stupid Netflix shows like Paris Hilton’s cooking program and Chelsea Handler’s completely unfunny “comedy” show.

Command Senior Chief Grisel Marrero was the ringleader of Manchester’s enlisted gold crew. She has been court-martialed for repeatedly lying to commanders about the secret Wi-Fi network, which was dubbed “STINKY.” From the first moments after the satellite dish was secretly installed on the ship, commanders knew that they had a rogue Wi-Fi signal on board. It’s not like you can hide a civilian Wi-Fi signal. Just look at all the Wi-Fi signals that your home computer can pick up in your neighborhood if you doubt this.

By the time that the ship’s senior officers finally located the satellite dish (it was hidden way up on the top of the ship and out of sight from the deck), Marrero had enlisted every one of the ship’s mess chiefs into the conspiracy. They were all using the secret Wi-Fi channel to stream movies and chat with family members at home, while the rank-and-file sailors would sometimes have to go days or weeks without communicating via the internet with their loved ones.

More than 15 chiefs on board the ship had helped to pay for the satellite dish and were in on the conspiracy. It’s not just that the unfettered internet access that the chiefs enjoyed was unfair to the enlisted sailors. This was a massive security risk that could have gotten everyone on board the ship killed if a war had broken out.

Civilian Wi-Fi signals don’t just receive incoming satellite signals. They also emit a signal that reveals the exact GPS location of the device being used. This is why Ukraine suffered such an incredible number of casualties after they started kidnapping young men off the streets and sending them to the front lines to fight the Russian military with virtually no training.

The Ukrainian recruits were often carrying around their personal cell phones in their pockets. That’s like painting a target with the words “Drop Cruise Missile Here” on your butt. The Russians had a field day with precision drone strikes because the troops hadn’t been told to leave their cell phones behind. The Russians and the Chinese probably got loads of data about the Manchester’s movements during deployment because of that Starlink dish.

Marrero was found guilty at her court martial and busted from an E-8 rank down to an E-7. She’s still in the Navy. It really makes you wonder about the recruits joining the US military these days. Do they just hate America to the point where they don’t take their oath to the Constitution seriously? Or are they just stupid? Or is it both?