Coast Guard Officers Use Craigslist to Find Entertainment for Ptero Roost 2009
From 1 to 4 October 2009 the annual Ptero Roost 2009 took place in Elizabeth City, NC. This annual event is as close to the Navy’s Tailhook convention as Coast Guard can get, but not nearly as large and not nearly as fun. But for several Coast Guard Officers in town for the event, fun at the convention was not what they were looking for. On a tip from a hotel in Elizabeth City we had a staff member pay a visit to check out the goods.
The goods were on the hotels computers in the business center. Apparently a number of pilots were unable to find enough entertainment in Elizabeth City to fulfil their needs, so they turned to Craigslist. These pilots weren’t looking for restaurants or bars, they were looking for sex.
Unfortunately these pilots failed to clear the cache on the computers and the sent mail folders from the Outlook express accounts on the hotel’s computers. What makes this all the more interesting is that many of these officers used their real names.
For one Officer the name “ebony” will haunt him as we move forward with this story.
Were these Coast Guard Officers on personal leave or on official orders?
I’m not sure what difference being on order make on hooking up with prostitute. I’m the guy that visited that hotel. What I found was that a large number of guests at the hotel felt safe to transact all kinds odd business on a hotel computer. The trails they left were amazing. One helo pilot went to great lengths to tell his Craigslist beauty about who he was, what he did, what he flys, why he was in town and what type of companionship he needed.
Oops! Sadly, his handle name narrows the list of suspects…
Very possibly, very possibly.
impressive garbage can sifting journalism; Cronkite would be proud. I plan on finding the next PTERO Roost, and logging on to a hotel computer using some names of some CG Officers I hate and have them looking for sex, etc. Then when your “cache boy” finds it, my nefarious plan will be complete. Perhaps you can contact these pilots from the hotel and teach them how to be anonymous, since you guys are so good at it. Wow, such bravery….maybe you should head down to a bar in town and report on the men and women actively pursuing hook-ups there also. Craigslist is the new virtual bar scene. I assume you are keeping everyone hanging on who these folks are until you can verify it was a prostitute, or is it just to keep your readers riveted?
HAHAHAHA!!!! Funny how the cast of oh so PC Coast Guard members with their quasi-military culture were so quick to slam the Navy 18 years ago over the water cooler and in their “all hands sexual harassment training” for Tailhook. Seems some of their own like sex just as much.
Also, was Gerry Corcoran there before heading off to the slammer?
Was anyone from CG-711 staying at that hotel?
CareerFear,
Let us be clear, we don’t find anything trashy about reporting violations of the UCMJ. The fact that married men, would use the internet to find sex while on travel, may be trashy. A violation of the UCMJ … yes.
Now lets look at the Punitive Articles of the UCMJ starting with Article 134— Adultery. Elements.
(1) That the accused wrongfully had sexual intercourse with a certain person;
(2) That, at the time, the accused or the other person was married to someone else; and
(3) That, under the circumstances, the conduct of the accused was to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces or was of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces.
Now lets move on to Article 133—Conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman.
“Any commissioned officer, cadet, or midshipman who is convicted of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.”
Elements.
(1) That the accused did or omitted to do certain acts; and
(2) That, under the circumstances, these acts or omissions constituted conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman.
CareerFear, I would like to leave you with this; Commissioned Officers of the Armed Forces of the United States all hold offices of special trust and confidence. In several of the cases we’re following, the officers created anonymous e-mail accounts using Yahoo and Gmail, but actually used their official Coast Guard e-mail address (xxxxx@uscg.mil) to register the anonymous accounts.
It’s actually Jerry (not Gerry) Corcoran was already headed to the slammer when Ptero Roost was held this year.
careerfear,
Please don’t bate or push them to publish the names or the e-mails. Please.
What ever happened to the brewing story about Coast Guard officials using government vehicles to visit gay bathhouses?
Anon, we will not be bated into publishing the names. Our Board of Directors will meat next week on this. We will look at three options, letting the story run with copies of the e-mails between the Officers and entertainers on craigslist, or turn the issue over the Coast Guard (we’ve done this before), and lastly let it die.
You are so pathetic. What is your issue? Is your life that empty that you have to find ways to bring the Coast Guard and its members down? I was one of the people you incorrectly spoke of on your site months ago. I was so disgusted that you assumed you knew me, my marital status, and how many children I had. You were wrong….
Since then you have run more than one story that had BAD information. Why would I think this story would be true.
If you really cared about the Coast Guard, and ensuring we were on the up and up, you would simply pass this information to the correct persons and let them handle it.
What kind of person gets off on causing a raucus….even when they have to lie or draw incorrect conclusions to get attention?
I feel so sorry for you. I hope that you get a life really soon!
disgusted, I’m going to guess you were at Ptero Roost 2009 and possibly are among those that had too much fun away from home. I’ll give you my Marine perspective on this. It’s all about leadership, trust, ethics and integrity. As an Officer and a leader, the men and women under my command must have trust in me.
If I have to hold one my men or women accountable under the UCMJ, they need to know I am holding them to the same standard I hold myself to.
I don’t believe it necessary to release the names of those involved in this incident, but they should be held accountable. Without accountability, these individuals will continue to promote and be given positions of increased trust and confidence.
My thoughts today are with your lost shipmates of the C-130 off San Deigo. Semper Fi and Semper Paratus
We give you guys tips to investigate because we have seen how CG handles investigations. If they lead down the path that implicates a Flag, dead end. If they lead down a path that’s too embarrassing, dead end.
disgusted guy, did you contact cgr to tell them what they got wrong? i read this line all the time on this site, but none of you seem to ever fess up what was wrong. the whole fucking world is wrong sometimes. do tell what did they get wrong.
i did a quick search of this site and didn’t find anything talking about someones wife or children other than jerry corcoran. i know you’re not jerry, he is not allowed on the internet. so did you make that up?
Always funny how the company men come out of the woodwork to soften the blows against the Guard, even when it is blatantly wrong. Like Anon 2:11 points out, in their arrogance Coasties are quick to sling crap at the other services, then have the audacity to be pissed off when some of it bounces back and hits them square in the face.
I’m the person who found the disgusting e-mails at the hotel. My husband and discussed them and what we should do. We decided his career would be over if anyone knew he reported it. Our only alternative was to go to CGR. For those of you who wish to make light of this, I’ll give you an idea of what one of these men was up to.
Once he found his blond haired dream girl on craigslist he told her how he’s always wanted to have sex with a blond. He said he found out that his wife had sex with multiple partners and he thought it only fair that he fulfill his dream of sex with a blond. He explained in great detail how skilled he was at oral sex and that never reaches orgasm until his lady does.
You’re disgusted? I’m disgusted that this man is responsible for leading others. I’m disgusted that he and others may have followed through with their encounters. I’m disgusted that he may have carried a gift home to his waiting wife that she’ll learn about at her next Dr. visit. And you’re disgusted that it might get exposed to the world.
I have seen first hand out CGIS conducts investigations. You’re right, if they find a trail that implicates flag officer or becomes too embarrassing the investigation if over.
I trust CGR to investigate this far more than I would ever trust the CG. Let them run with this issue, and then pass it off to congress.
This is beyond ridiculous! I used to take this website serious, because the staff tried to present itself with some kind of journalistic integrity. Investigative stories about civil rights, modernization, etc. had a real value you couldn’t find on other Coast Guard-related blogs. But lately this site has been turning into another smear-blog, with no other purpose than trying to sling dirt and smear the names of Coasties for pure entertainment value. You might as well follow the lead of gossip-blogger Perez Hilton and post pictures of CG personnel and draw semen onto their faces. My advice if you want to continue to be relevant: Back off the smear, return to serious blogging. Leave the gossip to others.
No smear here, and certainly not gossip. This is reality blogging and that is likely more so the problem. A Coastie who has done nothing wrong, not violated the UCMJ, nor participated in an act that could bring discredit to the service cannot be smeared.
We’re still looking very had at this. We’ve been contacted by two officers involved with both giving a pretty good case for why we should not run the full story. If we were in fact out for pure entertainment value as you suspect, we would have already ran our full story. If we were as you say Perez Hilton like, we would run it just to spite those of you who attack our reporting of this incident. The spouse (of a pretty senior officer) who gave us the tip has already given you an idea of what’s in these e-mails. We’re trying to figure out how much of the actual e-mails we could publish without giving the identities away if we go that route. Why these men felt the need to give such detailed descriptions of themselves, where they work and what they do is perplexing. Although one Warrant Officer portrayed himself as a Helo Pilot, we suspect the rest of his description is pretty close.
I do wonder what you’re doing following Perez Hilton, we had to look her up (turns out to be a him, … we kind of a him).
Too funny,
A Warrant Officer who portrayed himself as a Helo Pilot? And two officers making a pretty good case for why you should not run the full story? Come on Coast Guard Report, you owe it to your readers to publish the whole story. You also owe it to the brave person who came forward to you with the information instead of sweeping it under the table.
This I hold to be self evident. For every person I have seen wank over the past couple years about what this site reports, and threatens to never cover back two things happen.
1) 4 or 5 or maybe more readers replace them.
2) they always come back.
A contractor on our staff from Harkcon spends as much time reading this site as he does bitching about it.
As soon as we learn to embrace social media the way our Commandant seems to indicate we do, the better off we will be.
Interesting explanation.
You drop all sorts of hints about the identities of the people supposedly using Craigslist to get dates, including ranks, where and when it happened, where your tips came from, the name of one of the ladies solicited, that it’s not just gossip and several officers were involved, not to mention that anyone in attendance at the roost can figure out which hotel you’re talking about, but you’re thinking twice about going deeper because two officers involved have contacted you about not running a story?
This seems to be the modus operandi of this site – teasing supposed blockbuster stories (the flag officer at the gay bathhouse, “coming clean” about the folks behind CGR) and then not delivering because someone in the CG has supposedly convinced you otherwise or whatever reason you have or you’re wrapped in some moral dilemma about it. Seems to me if you were really taking such counsel seriously you’d lock the thread or otherwise drop the subject altogether.
Here’s the other thing I find interesting about all this – for a site supposedly committed to being an independent voice, calling out inequities within the ranks of the Coast Guard, unafraid to go after ADM Allen and other leaders by name, you’re remarkably quick to think twice about going further with a story like this one…one in which you apparently did a fair amount of legwork and have a ton of evidence…because a couple of officers you claim are involved (and theoretically have a compelling interest in what comes out) told you to hold off. That certainly is a nice setup that suggests you have some real juicy stuff but why even mention you’ve been contacted? Much of what you’ve posted is mocking in tone and doesn’t suggest you have much sympathy for the parties involved, the name “ebony” will haunt one particular officer, yet you’re undecided whether to go forward because of the pleas of two officers involved? I’d be curious to hear what they’ve told you that convinced this site to put the brakes on this story.
I’m beginning to think most of this is basically just chum to attract readers because this site needs a hook. Everything else you print are basically press releases, ALCOASTS or reprints from the news.
You have been at HQ long enough to know that we get it right far more often than we get it wrong. We’ll leave it at that. We’re starting to wonder if we’re not being taunted by HQ to release the names, or maybe some inside HQ.
By the way, true we do provide reprinted info (not as much as CoastGuardNews.com), but we provide far more original content. If all we provided was the type of stuff you can find at CoastGuardNews.com, you wouldn’t be here and you wouldn’t keep coming back. That said, you wouldn’t need to leave a comment like this if that’s all we reported.
Again, thanks for your continue readership.
Did my tax dollars go to putting up a bunch of officers in hotels just so they can “grip-and-grin” and surf Craig’s List looking for a booty call? Surely there are better ways to spend the hard earned dollars that I fork over to Uncle Sam every year. Please, find a better use for my tax dollars….
Do any of you idiots pay attention to the tracker or who whosamongus thing at the bottom of the site. The more you idiots go after CGR to shit or get off the pot the more people stay hooked. You feed the machine.
I’m hooked. People like this one keep me coming back for more. They never learn and you keep us coming back. You’re somewhere between the FOX report and New York Post. Either way you win.
I think this whole game of “tease the readership” is reaching new heights of absurdity. You got a tip, followed up on it at the hotel, have a pile of emails with names of several coasties involved in the whole thing, taunted the officer who contacted “ebony” (and me for my response, though you’re a bit off the mark there)…but now you’re not so sure?
When will we hear about this supposed senior Coast Guard Official and the gaybathouse? You’ve only been dragging that “hot story” out for months now.
Have you contacted CG-711 for their view on this situation?
Some of the comments slinging mud at this site seem to be aimed at pushing the release of the names. Who is really slinging mud, the Blog or the readers who try to push their buttons?
If you want it bad, you’ll probably get it bad.
What would 711 add to this?
I don’t really care about the perps, or even the whole Craigslist hooker thing. I just find the background of this story pretty odd. CGR comes out with a post bragging that they’ve got the goods on a few officers doing bad things, dropping hints left and right about the scads of information they’ve dug up, and then all of a sudden they’re having a crisis of conscience? Seems there’s a lot more to this story than what’s being discussed by staff, and I’m not talking about the guys looking for dates.
me again,
You’re right. This one has become bigger than we expected. We didn’t brag about what was given to us, we just reported it. Like many of the issues we cover and investigate, we try to get something out to our readers as soon as possible. We take it from there. New is perishable, so yes we do try to get something out and on-line to ensure we can claim “we broke it” rights to a story.
Okay, but lines like “For one Officer the name ‘ebony’ will haunt him as we move forward with this story.” and “The GOODS (emphasis mine) were on the hotels computers in the business center.” are more sensationalist than simply an explanation of how you got the information you got. And the story really isn’t about the information or how you got it, right?
As for “No smear here, and certainly not gossip.” Well right now, by several definitions, it IS gossip! You’ve given readers random pieces of info, with no way to evaluate it, in an effort to “get something out there” but you haven’t really connected the dots or given us a story. It’s “here’s some good dirt, run with it.”
Now THAT’S funny. I know of 3 in 711, can think of 2 that would.. haha
Why would anyone even go to the lengths to publish what somebody surfs on a hotel computer, it wasn’t a WSIII! This whole thing stinks to me.
Questions to ask:
Is trolling on a legal site illegal?
Was there an arrest of an officer?
Who is the hooker? And does she/he even exist?
Aside from the fact that Coasties are trolling for hookers, seems to me that someone’s privacy was seriously violated in this matter.
Mustang,
We like your questions, so here goes:
No it’s not illegal to troll on a legal site. However, there are people who post illegal services on a legal site. craigslist has been on the watch list for more than a dozen State Attorney Generals for that reason.
Was there an arrest … no as you know we seldom arrest military officers for anything short of rape or murder.
Who is the hooker? She prefers to think of herself as a companion and entertainer. That keeps her from being arrested. I think we mentioned that we had her ID’d thanks to craigslist user id.
Privacy, never assume you have privacy on public computer. For that matter, never assume you have any measure of privacy on WSIII.
Again thanks for the questions and reading CGR.
Speaking of CG-711, looks like someone from is trying to start something over at Fred’s Place.
Do you have a link?
http://forums.military.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/415197802/m/8110006732001
Staff,
You are being baited on this one over at Fred’s Place by someone at HQ.
We don’t think so. Mr. Jackson has done a great job of answering questions at Freds Place. http://forums.military.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/415197802/m/8110006732001
It’s good to see Mr. Jackson again. Any chance he now will have the time to be a more steady contributor to CGR?
Yes.