What the NCIS File Says
On the evening of March 11, 2018, USNS Mercy was underway from Hawaii to Guam for Pacific Partnership 2018, the Navy's largest annual multinational humanitarian assistance mission. Around 1800 hours, the accused, a government-contractor third assistant engineer, was off duty and sitting on the top deck of the aft house with other MSC civilian mariners while a helicopter from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23 (HSC-23) conducted flight operations in the airspace around the ship.
According to witness statements, he exposed his genitals as the helicopter flew past. When asked what he had done, he allegedly said, "I just whipped it out to the helicopter." A separate witness, a JP-5 fueling engineering captain, reported that someone had radioed the flight-operations tower to say a person on the aft house deck had exposed himself to the helicopter, though that witness did not know who made the call. None of the HSC-23 air or ground crew working flight operations that day came forward to identify themselves as witnesses.
Military Sealift Command opened an internal investigation. After reviewing possible criminal offenses, investigators concluded that no criminal violation could be identified, and the matter was adjudicated administratively as a violation of MSC rules, regulations, and policies. MSC suspended the engineer for 30 days and removed him from USNS Mercy in Guam for return to the continental United States.
NCIS entered the picture on March 15, 2018, when the Staff Judge Advocate for Destroyer Squadron 31, the staff overseeing Pacific Partnership 2018 aboard Mercy, notified an NCIS reporting agent of the disciplinary action. NCIS reviewed the completed MSC investigation and ran background records checks rather than opening a criminal investigation of its own. Those checks, run through the National Crime Information Center, the Joint Personnel Adjudication System, the DoD Law Enforcement Exchange, and the NCIS Knowledge Network, returned no derogatory information. The records also reflected that the engineer held a Secret security clearance. NCIS noted that one database, the Defense Central Index of Investigations, was unavailable at the time and that the check would be run later, with any derogatory information to be reported in a supplemental report.
Case Timeline
While USNS Mercy was underway from Hawaii to Guam for Pacific Partnership 2018, witnesses reported that the off-duty engineer exposed his genitals toward an HSC-23 helicopter conducting flight operations near the ship. A report reached the flight-operations tower.
Military Sealift Command reviewed witness statements, evaluated possible criminal offenses, found no applicable criminal statute, and adjudicated the matter administratively. MSC suspended the engineer for 30 days and removed him from the ship in Guam.
The DESRON 31 Staff Judge Advocate notified NCIS of the disciplinary action. NCIS reviewed the MSC investigation and ran records checks through NCIC, JPAS, DDEX, and K-NET, all of which returned no derogatory information. The engineer was confirmed to hold a Secret security clearance. The DCII check was deferred to a later date.
Why This Record Matters
- This file is an administrative sexual-misconduct record, not a sexual-assault case, and it should be read that way. But it is a useful window into how the system handles conduct that falls outside the criminal code. MSC identified the behavior as a policy violation serious enough to warrant a 30-day suspension and removal from the vessel, yet because investigators concluded no criminal statute applied, the matter was resolved entirely through internal MSC discipline rather than any criminal process.
- The file does not indicate whether the matter was referred to Coast Guard credential authorities.
- The case also shows how much of the underlying record stays out of public view. The NCIS document preserved here is a two-page report summarizing MSC's findings; the full MSC investigation it relied on is not part of the readable transcript. What survives is NCIS's account of someone else's investigation, with names, the engineer's identifying details, and much of the supporting material redacted.
