The former executive officer of Naval Base Coronado, who was relieved of his duties earlier this year, has been found guilty of failing to stop “obvious and repeated instances of sexual harassment” while leading the Navy’s famed Blue Angels fight demonstration squad, it was reported Thursday.
Capt. Gregory McWherter was removed from his Coronado post in April due to what was then an ongoing investigation into his actions while he was commanding officer of the Blue Angels at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida from November 2008 to November 2010 and again from May 2011 to November 2012.
On Monday, McWherter was given a non-judicial punitive letter of reprimand, a move that is usually career-ending, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The guilty decision was made after a Navy investigation had found that McWherter “witnessed, condoned, and encouraged behavior that, while juvenile and sophomoric in the beginning, ultimately and in the aggregate, became destructive, toxic and hostile,” according to the Times.
Specifically, the Navy found McWherter allowed pornography in the cockpits of the Blue Angels planes and also on a restricted website. He also allowed a painting depicting male genitalia on the roof of a Blue Angels building at its winter base in El Centro.
Prior to being relieved of his duties in Coronado, McWherter was expected to become commanding officer of the base next year. He became an executive officer at Coronado in November.
— City News Service