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Earlier this year, dozens of active-duty male Marines were caught uploading to a private Facebook page thousands of explicit photos of female Marines. It was, as one observer said, “WEAPONIZED” SEXUAL HARASSMENT and it has become one of the biggest scandals to rock the military in years. So WHY has NO ONE been held ACCOUNTABLE?

- Elliot Ackerman

One morning this past February, a female active-duty Marine was standing in line at CIF, a cavernous supply warehouse at Camp Lejeune. It was a little past ten o’clock, and the weather outside was clear and gusty, typical of winters among the sand pines of coastal North Carolina. The woman—call her Judy—was checking into a new unit. She’d come to CIF to collect her standard issue of combat equipment.

While Judy stood among the rows of stacked body armor, Kevlar helmets, and camouflage hiking packs, an infantryman named Brenden McDonel, who was standing a few places behind her in line, pulled out his phone and started surreptitiously taking her photograph. McDonel didn’t know Judy, but that didn’t keep him from posting the pictures to a private Facebook group called Marines United. “Standing in line behind her at CIF,” he wrote. “Who’s got em?”

Within minutes of that first post, dozens of members of Marines United chimed in. “Stalker game has just been elevated,” one posted. Others suggested sexual acts. “FHRITP,” one proposed. “And butthole. And throat. And ears. Both of them. Video it though . . . for science.” Another encouraged McDonel to “take her out back and pound her out.” Several members of the Facebook group recognized Judy, and some said that she belonged to their unit. “Was on the range with her while back, pink ass jeep right.” Her platoon sergeant—her direct supervisor—liked the thread.

As they advanced through the line, McDonel continued to stalk Judy, shooting photos and posting them to Marines United. Only ninety minutes after his initial request, a photo showing Judy topless was posted to the Facebook thread. The picture had clearly been taken by a lover, someone she had trusted. But its appearance on Marines United represented an obvious breach of that trust.