Portsmouth Police Investigating Death of Virginia-Based Command Master Chief as Suicide

Master Chief Petty Officer Gregg Snaza, 50, is One of the Navy’s Most Senior Navy Enlisted Leaders Thought to Have Died of Suicide, Few Details Released

by Mike Hixenbaugh, October 28, 2015
The Virginian-Pilot

PORTSMOUTH VA — The top enlisted sailor at the command overseeing all of the Navy’s bases in the mid-Atlantic region died Monday night at his home.

Master Chief Petty Officer Gregg Snaza was 50.

“Master Chief Snaza served our nation, our Navy and sailors with honor and distinction for more than 32 years,” Rear Adm. Rick Williamson, commander of Navy Region Mid-Atlantic, said in a statement.

Snaza reported to the Norfolk-based command in May.

The Navy did not give the cause of death. Portsmouth police spokeswoman Misty Holley said it is being investigated as a suicide.

Snaza was the senior enlisted adviser to Williamson, who oversees more than 94,000 sailors in 20 states.

He previously served as command master chief of the Navy Exchange Command and the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Snaza is survived by his wife, two daughters, parents and a grandson.

Click here to read this article at its source.

HEARTBREAKING VIDEO: Young Navy Widow Shares Her Family’s Touching Story of Love and Pain After Her Special Warfare Sailor-Husband Died From Suicide

HEARTBREAKING VIDEO: Young Navy Widow Shares Her Family’s Touching Story of Love and Pain After Her Special Warfare Sailor-Husband Died From Suicide

by TMSR
September 24, 2015

Click here to view the touching and heartbreaking video made by Navy widow Stephanie Lembo about her family’s experience with, love, deployments, PTSD and losing her “soul mate” to military suicide.

Her husband Petty Officer First Class Anthony J. Lembo served with the Navy SEALS as a Fastboat Crewman. He came home from overseas deployments and stateside training missions a changed man, she said.

In 2010, after the family of four — they had two young sons — had already endured a recent miscarriage, PO1(SW) Anthony Lembo died from suicide.

Ms. Limbo says he experienced sleep problems, speech problems, and nearly stopped eating in the months before he took his life.

She says he suffered from severe PTSD, and had refused her pleas that he seek help because he was afraid of losing his security clearance and his career.

Click here to read the story of the Lembo family’s experience with suicide.

Click here to help Stephanie Lembo’s initiative to help other military wives learn about PTSD and Suicide Prevention and awareness.

TOXIC LEADERSHIP: Another Sailor Dies From Suicide After Being Bullied by Her Commanders

Toxic Command Climate Cited in Sailor’s Suicide

by Dianna Cahn
The Virginian-Pilot, Dec. 17, 2014

NORFOLK, Va. (Tribune News Service) — A sailor’s suicide on board the Norfolk-based destroyer James E. Williams in June can be blamed in part on a toxic command climate that involved bullying and retribution, a command investigation has found.

The investigation was spurred by the death of the sailor but grew in scope when the investigator began examining the ship’s leadership. What he found was misconduct and abusive behavior among senior enlisted personnel while the commanding officer and the executive officer failed to take charge.

Among the allegations to surface in the report were accounts of a second suicide attempt, sexual assault, a reprisal and alcohol abuse by the ship’s command master chief — the top enlisted sailor.

The ship’s skipper, Cmdr. Curtis Calloway, handed over the reins in September. He was reassigned, along with his deputy, Cmdr. Ed Handley, and Command Master Chief Travis Biswell, to desk jobs in Norfolk pending the investigation. All three faced nonjudicial punishment for dereliction of duty in October, while Biswell was also found guilty of drunken and disorderly conduct.

“As the CO, Cmdr. Calloway owned the culture on board USS James E. Williams,” Rear Adm. Andrew Lewis, the Carrier Strike Group 12 commander, wrote in his endorsement of the report.

Calloway’s failure to hold senior enlisted personnel accountable, including the command master chief, “enabled a culture that empowered the chief petty officers to target, belittle and bully junior sailors,” Lewis wrote. “Cmdr. Calloway was either willfully blind to problems on board his ship or he was in an extremely negligent state of denial.”

The Williams left on an eight-month deployment to the Mediterranean Sea on May 30. Seaman Yeshabel Villot-Carrasco died June 19 after taking a toxic dosage of sleeping pills, according to the investigation.

The report found that she was upset about her treatment on board and felt she was being singled out and selectively punished because of her small stature. The investigation found that she’d faced reprisal in the form of disciplinary action after telling her superior that she planned to file an equal opportunity complaint. She also struggled with perceptions on board that she was involved romantically with another sailor while her husband was on a different ship.

The investigation said she sought assistance the day she took the pills, but support networks that are required to be in place were not functioning. It found that the initial ship’s investigation was incomplete and that the commanding officer failed to address concerns it raised about command climate, misconduct and missed warning signs.

“Her belief that she was being treated unfairly by her leaders… was not her only source of stress but it was significant,” the investigator found.

About a week after the suicide, another sailor tried to kill herself by attempting to jump overboard. She was physically restrained by others, the report said.

Read the rest of this story:

http://www.stripes.com/news/navy/uss-james-e-williams-toxic-command-climate-cited-in-sailor-s-suicide-1.319730