Trigger Warning – Sexual Assault, Violence, War

Text below the photos, because this is a very serious blog post about serious issues that involve myself and traumatic events that happened to me and around me.

Bootcamp Graduation Photo, here I was a RPSN, Ship (Class) 369. July to September 2000.

Graduation Photo Merridian, MS Religious Program Specialist Advanced School, Dec 2000, RPSN Eric Fournier

2005 Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, VA Fleet Marine Force Deployment to Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, Africa, JTF-HOA, RP2(SW) Eric Fournier, Honorably Discharged in 2007. (Personal note, I was not FMF qualified when they sent me on this deployment because I was the only RP2(SW) at the command with a secret clearance, it was a choice between the border of the US and Mexico or Africa and I figured I would never get that opportunity again, so I jumped at it. I trained at Fort Benning, GA, now renamed, for 6 weeks prior to shipping out.)

I am writing this in response to the news stories about the USS George Washington. I wanted to share my experiences on the USS ANZIO (CG-68) Decommissioned, to help back their stories and help repair the bridge between juniors and seniors. Please listen to your junior sailors, there are more of them, and the officers are not always in the bilges when the bad juju happens.

I’m a normal guy, born in the 80s. I grew up in many unique and beautiful places. My experiences were profound in how my worldview molded. I joined the military in mid 2000, I was 17, while turmoil was brewing. Immaturity and belief I didn’t have another choice drove me to join the Navy. I took the ASVAB and I did not score high in mechanical understanding, yet my word comprehension and a few other fields were high. The recruiter offered me an administrative job, and I asked if I could do anything for “God” because I had recently reinvolved myself in religion in my personal life. I signed up as a Religious Program Specialist, a RPSN upon arrival to bootcamp because of my success in helping in the recruitment of three other individuals into the Navy. Our LPO at bootcamp (Ship 369 we had the most flags for silent marching) told me he was proud of me when I graduated bootcamp. I was enthusiastic about Advanced School.

I traveled to Mississippi and found that the class had already started. So, I waited in limbo standing watch duty around the barracks. When class started, I was all for it. Although the Navy was behind the times, they were teaching DOS, when upon arrival to the ship we were deep into windows. I had to throw out all the training I received and start fresh with new ideas. Compile that onto, as an E3 I was sent to the USS ANZIO CG-68 (Decommissioned) for an E6 independent duty billet. I quickly moved up the ranks, and I had a lot of lower to upper rank fighting around where authority lay and how I was to submit requests, everything unfolded quickly because we had to set up a new system of communication. Often officers would dress me down because I showed up at their door with paperwork, when they felt the chaplain in charge should have addressed them in person. It was worse when it was an E7. Some of the chain of command understood my pressures and spoke to me privately about the job I was doing, and they saw the difficult part. My CPO took me aside and told me he was proud of me. Those moments held me steady, that is if any advice I could give to leaders for their junior sailors who feel alone, those steady moments of advice pushed me on. I advanced quickly to RP2(SW).

We found ourselves at war quickly, 9/11 happened while we were in the shipyards, so we were not of the initial front. Our turn came in Mar 2003; we left port in January with the understanding war was a great possibility. We floated to the Caribbean, during wargames our ship was able to sneak past defenses and pull off the impossible maneuver of taking out the fleet carrier, our ship suffered for that embarrassment. We worked hard and fast, the rumor around the passageways was that anyone who wanted to throw their hat in for admiral office would come and captain our ship.

I am not legally allowed to say names or ranks of anyone involved, but there were so many suicide attempts, people kicked off the ship because they were found having “gay” sex on the ship during the “don’t ask, don’t tell era”, violent episodes, Master Chiefs getting into real major trouble, it tumbled down the pipe. I had prior trauma to work through, in addition to traumatic events, I witnessed a sexual assault, I don’t remember the names, or faces (they are a blur, I see bodies, but not the faces), I will not share the details on this blog. I was scared to report, in fear of my life, there were threats to the gay men who were caught lovemaking, it all was a scary experience. I observed these things happening, justice was often served, yet the fact that the people who were doing these things felt it was appropriate is a problem. I’ve thought on it for a long time because in the moment, you survive, you respect, you push through. Years later you reflect. Twenty-two years later, there are still parts of that period of my life I am not ready to write about. Some memories remain difficult to revisit. It is what I can tell today.

A respectful note, I am in support of LGBTQ+ as I am a bi-sexual person. That is only a small part of who I am and in no other way involved in my military life, I am finally brave enough to say the truth even though it has been years since I was in. I feared a lot, I questioned a lot.