The United States and Russia may be near-peers on the battlefield, but they are equals in one arena: strangest military happenings of the decade. Curiously, much of the news involves naval mishaps. But not all. Incident by intsident, then, and in no particular order, here is the breakdown of each country’s top military weirdness over the past 10 years.
Baa’d turn in the Black Sea — A Togo-flagged sheep transport freighter took out a Russian spy ship in 2017 off the coast of Turkey. The Youzarsif H was packed to the portholes with Romanian livestock headed for Jordan when it plowed into the Liman, puncturing the hull below the waterline. While Russian crew members scrambled to save equipment, documents, weapons, and ammunition, the spy ship sank to the depths of the Black Sea. All 78 secret sailors were rescued unharmed. The sheep ship headed back to Romania, presumably to consult with veterinarians.
Moscow goes Hollywood — Propelled by the realization that Russia has produced few Putin-era films that celebrate the armed forces, the Russian Defense Ministry in 2012 ramped up its incursion into the movie business. In 2015, the ministry established a prize for creative projects that “contribute to the military-patriotic education of Russian citizens, as well as for their significant contribution to the development of the armed forces of the country.” High-ranking commanders helped create box office hits about World War II armored warfare, producing such sellouts as Indestructible, Tanks, and T-34. In March, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that his ministry would build a new film studio to produce movies aimed at instilling patriotism for Russia.
A clean-cut crime — A Marine Corps noncommissioned officer in July was sent to the brig for his part in a scheme to get rich off of stolen razor blades. First Sgt. Lascelles Chambers and three Department of Defense civilian accomplices were charged with swiping and selling nearly $1.5 million in shaving supplies from a recruit depot store and warehouse at Parris Island, North Carolina. A former recruiter of the year, Chambers was reduced in rank to private and will be booted from the Corps with a bad conduct discharge.
Fat Leonard lived large — In a scandal that spans the decades, a 350-plus pound defense contractor, Malaysian national Leonard Glenn Francis, was charged in 2013 with running a freewheeling bribery shindig that brought him boatloads of cash. According to indictments, “Fat Leonard” Francis was a contractor who offered parties, payments, and prostitutes to sources in exchange for information that allowed him to cash in on Navy contracting fees. He reportedly scoured for information that gave him a leg-up on finding and securing lucrative contracts. In one instance, prosecutors claimed that Francis provided a rotating carousel of prostitutes at a blowout where partygoers ran up a $50,000 bill, not including the sex workers. The scandal brought down both civilian and high-ranking Navy personnel and resulted in Francis being sentenced to prison. In 2018, he reportedly was granted a medical furlough while recuperating from an illness.
The “female Captain Bligh” — The first woman to command both a destroyer and a guided-missile cruiser in the U.S. Navy, Capt. Holly Graf was famed within the surface warfare community for another achievement: being nicknamed the “female Captain Bligh.” A 1985 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Graf reportedly ran such tight ships that her crews said she mistreated them. Graf reportedly denied the claims, saying that a small number of disgruntled officers aboard her final ship, the USS Cowpens, turned others against her. An official investigation, however, found that Graf had problems with her “temperament and demeanor.” She was found guilty of violating Article 93 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, covering “cruelty and maltreatment.” Graf was removed from sea command and sent to a land base in Virginia, where she went into early and “honorable” retirement.
The mysterious UFO fleet — For years, the Pentagon was cagey about its secret mission to look for unidentified flying objects. In 2017, reports surfaced that the Defense Department indeed had a program to investigate UFO sightings — many of which were reported by members of the military. As Air Force and Navy pilots continued to encounter the strange unexplained objects, some previously skittish eyewitnesses came forward in the press. One Navy pilot, Cmdr. David Fravor, said he was “pretty weirded out” by an object that could accelerate like nothing else he’d seen. This year, other pilots said they were followed by an entire fleet of UFOs.
The disappearing dry dock — Russia’s only aircraft carrier was slated for repair and in dry dock in 2018, when a bizarre accident further disabled the massive ship. The Soviet-era Admiral Kuznetsov was atop the Swedish-built drydock when pumps failed on the 80,000-ton drydock. The dock sank. Two cranes then fell atop the aircraft carrier, gouging a large hole in the deck. The aircraft carrier eventually was repaired but suffered another mishap this month when it caught fire.
A boat felled by a walrus — An angry mother walrus felt threatened by a Russian Navy ship in September, so she tusked it — and sank it in icy waters. The boat did not have warlike designs on the walrus, according to reports from the Russian Geographical Society, but was on a research expedition to Franz Josef Land, a Russian archipelago in the Arctic. As part of the expedition, a Russian Navy rescue tug sent a rigid inflatable boat toward land. The small craft encountered the walrus, who was thought to be protecting her cubs. She attacked the boat and sent its occupants scrambling for safety. The Northern Fleet reported that no walruses were harmed during the incident.
A spy whale defects? The Beluga who turned up in Hammerfest, Norway, in April was shrouded in mystery. The creature was friendly, accustomed to being around humans, and was wearing a Russian harness reading, “Equipment St. Petersburg.” The Western press quickly concluded that the waterborne beast was a Russian spy whale, far from home. Perhaps he wanted to defect. While authorities debated how to handle the whale, the seagoing mammal became a local celebrity. One woman spotted him in the harbor and dropped her cell phone into the water. The whale immediately dove to retrieve the phone and returned it to the woman. The creature remained shrouded in mystery, but soon became known as the most helpful whale in the Arctic.
The disfavored general — A two-star general whose career seemed to be on the rise fell sharply out of favor with the Army after investigators concluded that he had a long term extramarital affair and led a secret swinger lifestyle that put him at risk of blackmail. Maj. Gen. David Haight, who held a key position with United States European Command, was brought home from Europe while the Army reviewed his case. Haight lost both of his stars and, in 2016, was demoted to lieutenant colonel, a rare loss of three paygrades.
The retired general who was “all in” — In a series of events that came to be known as “the Petraeus scandal,” retired four-star Gen. David Petraeus became infamous for having an affair with his biographer, Army Reserve officer Paula Broadwell. The two reportedly became close in 2010 while Petraeus commanded the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan and while Broadwell researched the curiously named biography, All In: The Education of David Petraeus. In 2012, while Petraeus was director of the CIA, a Petraeus family friend, Tampa socialite Jill Kelley, told the FBI that someone was harassing her via email. The FBI found that the anonymous emailer was Broadwell. In 2012, Petraeus resigned from the CIA, citing an extramarital affair with Broadwell. Petraeus later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information that he gave Broadwell.
