Sailors Do Hangovers, Not Sleepovers

"Real sailors don't go to sleep, they pass out.  And they don't wake up, they come to."

According to CNN, Navy Petty Officer Stephen Jones, a student at the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command in Charleston, South Carolina is accusing the Navy of baselessly trying to discharge him for "unprofessional conduct". 

On the night of February 5, Petty Officer Jones was found asleep in the same bed with a male friend, Navy Petty Officer Bryan McGee.  Jones says that Petty Officer McGee stopped by his room to watch TV and accidently fell asleep.  Petty Officer Mcgee accepted a "Captain's Mast," a non-judicial procedure meant to avoid a court martial, but Jones refused.  Consequently, Petty Officer Jones has been charged with "willful failure to exhibit professional conduct". Jones contends the Navy is merely trying to get around the recent "don't ask, don't tell" repeal and discharge him for being gay.


Jones, who claims nothing sexual happened, said they were both clothed, him in pajama pants and a white t-shirt and McGee in boxers, and that they were not under the covers together. Jones claims he was lying above the covers while McGee lay below.  The play-by-play given by Jones is substantiated by the Naval investigating documents, although a different account on the amount of clothing worn was given by Jones' roommate who discovered the two men in bed together.  The roommate claimed in his naval statement that both sailors were only dressed in their boxers.


 "It is a violation of the Command Instruction for sailors to act unprofessionally in the barracks. It is considered unprofessional conduct to share the same bed in Navy barracks," said Thomas Dougan, a spokesman for the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command.


Jones' lawyer, Greg Myers states that is client has been "charged with falling asleep while watching a show on his computer while on his bed over the covers where another man under the covers was also sleeping. This is not a crime and never will be as there was and is no duty to avoid such a circumstance as a matter of laws".  He has also charged that, "This Command suspects that Jones is a homosexual but has no proof.  It cannot invoke 'don't ask, don't tell' because there is no homosexual conduct and there is no admission of homosexuality. Yet this homophobic Command is using its suspicions to reach the same result as though there were," said Myers. "This is bigotry disguised as the rule of law."


QUESTION:  "What if Petty Officer McGee had been a female friend"?


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