THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 14, 1996 TAG: 9606140556
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 58 lines
Punished by his superiors, shunned by many of his former shipmates and all-but-run out of the Navy after he refused to join in covering up safety problems in his Little Creek-based special warfare unit, Matthew Napiltonia got a small measure of redemption Thursday.
With his family, several friends and guests at a Capitol Hill reception for government ``whistleblowers'' looking on, the former Navy SEAL commando picked up a $10,000 check and a citation for his ``moral courage,'' from the Cavallo Foundation of Cambridge, Mass.
But more importantly, in a way perhaps only SEALs can fully appreciate, Napiltonia was again able to pin on the distinctive trident pin worn by SEALs throughout the Navy.
``Since the Navy has chosen to abandon you and declined to (return) your trident, I offer you mine,'' retired Navy Cmdr. Tom Katana, Napiltonia's former commanding officer, said as he presented the award and attached the gold insignia to Napiltonia's suit.
Napiltonia, 24, left the Navy last month after declining an offer that he said would have let him return to duty as a SEAL if he acknowledged that he acted improperly in pursuing his complaints about safety practices in SEAL Team 8.
He would not apologize, he said, ``because I chose to tell the truth.''
Napiltonia was seen by his superiors as a hard-charging 3rd class petty officer when he and other members of his platoon went on a training exercise to Ft. Pickett, near Petersburg, in December 1994. During a break in their land warfare training, according to Navy documents, the officer in charge of the platoon picked up a pop flare that had been illegally modified and abruptly launched it. The flare brushed the ground and struck Operations Specialist Greg Farmerie in the groin.
Farmerie, who remains in the SEALs, sustained second degree burns. As he was transported from the field for treatment, officers in charge of the platoon instructed Napiltonia and the other trainees not to say anything about what had happened.
Napiltonia's refusal to follow that order, and his other complaints about safety practices in the unit, eventually got him reassigned, led to the placement of written reprimands in his record and to his referral for psychiatric evaluations. His complaints about safety in the unit meanwhile, were sustained by a Navy investigation.
Katana, who had left SEAL Team 8 before the incident, said such treatment ``is not the SEAL way,'' and that those who tried to punish Napiltonia for speaking up ``broke a sacred trust.''
A SEAL ``trusts his very life to the certainty that his swim buddy will always be there,'' Katana said. Napiltonia pursued that ethic in refusing to take part in cover-up, he argued
Left some $15,000 in debt after an almost two-year battle with the service, Napiltonia said he intends to pursue a new career by going to law school. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Matthew Napiltonia refused to cover up a mishap during a training
exercise.
KEYWORDS: U.S NAVY SEAL AWARD WHISTLE BLOWING by CNB