NORFOLK — A Navy lieutenant commander pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court to a child pornography charge following sexually explicit conversations with a person he believed was a 14-year-old girl.

Christopher Paul Hetherington faces 15 to 30 years in federal prison for the attempted production of child pornography. The charge stems from an online sting operation last year that spanned Oct. 26 to Dec. 15.

Using the screen name “sw0daddy,” the 33-year-old Navy officer had repeated sexually explicit conversations online with an agent posing as a high school girl, according to an affidavit filed Dec. 19 by Naval Criminal Investigative Services.

Throughout the six weeks, Hetherington detailed the sexual acts he wished to perform on and with her, and encouraged her to send him explicit photos. Most of the conversations took place on Snapchat, a multimedia instant-messaging app.

The agent suspected Hetherington was a surface warfare officer in the Navy because his screen name referenced the acronym used for the rate.

At the time of the conversations, Hetherington was assigned to a Norfolk-based destroyer, the USS Ross. A lieutenant commander, he was serving as a weapons officer on the ship.

He made plans to meet with the girl Dec. 21 for sex. Instead, he was arrested at his home by NCIS.

Hetherington is scheduled to be sentenced August 9.

Caitlyn Burchett, [email protected]

The USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group completed the final certification needed to ready the aircraft carrier for its maiden warfighting deployment.

The Ford slipped into port Sunday at Naval Station Norfolk following a month-long composite training unit exercise (COMPTUEX) off the East Coast. While the Navy’s newest and most technologically aircraft carrier has conducted short, training-focused deployments, completion means the Ford is now a certified combat-deployable warship.

“After we complete COMPTUEX, Ford and our crew will be fully integrated with the carrier strike group as a cohesive, multi-mission fighting machine, ready to sail over the horizon to support national tasking,” said Capt. Paul Lanzilotta, the Ford’s commanding officer, ahead of the certification in the April edition of warship’s monthly magazine.

“COMPTUEX served as a doctorate-level test of the strike group’s ability to operate collectively across the spectrum of warfare areas while incorporating the first in class Gerald R. Ford into the strike group,” said Rear Adm. Greg Huffman, commander of Carrier Strike Group 12.

[ Delivery date for next carrier, USS John F. Kennedy, pushed back a year ]

The training included Destroyer Squadron 2, guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy, and guided-missile destroyers USS Ramage and USS McFaul — all of which are based in Norfolk — and USS Thomas Hudner. Carrier Air Wing 8, primarily based out of Naval Station Norfolk and Naval Air Station Oceana, also participated.

During the four weeks, units were tested on their proficiency and readiness through scenario-based, live training, that increases in complexity and intensity, U.S. Fleet Forces Command said in a press release. The simulated combat situations included aircraft, submarine and missile attacks, ship casualties and engineering and communication drills.

“The robust scenarios challenged every facet of our warfighting capability, enabling growth and learning at every level, allowing us to further refine our warfare tactics and processes… Our readiness is the highest it has ever been, and I feel fortunate for the opportunity to deploy with this amazing team,” Huffman said.

Caitlyn Burchett, [email protected]

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Investigators recovered “black boxes” from two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters that crashed last week in Kentucky, killing all nine soldiers aboard, the military announced Tuesday.

A U.S. Army aviation safety team from Fort Rucker, Alabama, found the flight data recorders, which are commonly referred to as black boxes in civilian aircraft, from the HH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, a news release from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) said. The helicopters crashed near Fort Campbell during a nighttime training exercise on March 29. The recorders have been sent to Fort Rucker for further analysis.

“The duration of the investigation is determined by the thorough analysis of all factors,” division spokesman Lt. Col. Tony Hoefler said in the news release.

The pilots were using night-vision goggles during the exercise, Army officials said. Brig. Gen. John Lubas, the 101st Airborne deputy commander, has said the accident occurred while the helicopters were flying and not during a medical evacuation drill.

The soldiers’ remains have been taken to Dover Air Force Base, which is home to the Joint Service Mortuary Affairs Office, officials said.

Three of the soldiers killed in the crash were posthumously promoted to the next higher grade, officials said: Sgt. Emilie Marie Eve Bolanos, 23, of Austin, Texas; Chief Warrant Officer 3 Zachary Esparza, 36, of Jackson, Missouri; and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Aaron Healy, 32, of Cape Coral, Florida.

The others killed were Warrant Officer 1 Jeffery Barnes, 33, of Milton, Florida; Sgt. Isaacjohn Gayo, 27, of Los Angeles, California; Staff Sgt. Joshua C. Gore, 25, of Morehead City, North Carolina; Staff Sgt. Taylor Mitchell, 30, of Mountain Brook, Alabama; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Rusten Smith, 32, of Rolla, Missouri; and Sgt. David Solinas Jr., 23, of Oradell, New Jersey, the Army said.

Staff at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility will host an informational open house on Wednesday from 4-6 p.m. to engage the public on current and upcoming activities.

Members of the facility’s environmental team as well as representatives from the United States Navy will attend to discuss projects with the public, including ongoing Field Carrier Landing Practice training and plans to remediate a former skeet shooting range on the facility.

Wallops’ Environmental Team will be on hand to discuss and answer questions about a number of programs and initiatives on the facility, including NASA’s ongoing work related to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) at the facility.

Eliza Noe, [email protected]

With a new Congress, the Navy is trying again with its proposal to shrink the fleet as part of its “divest to invest” approach.

The Navy unveiled its Fiscal Year 2024 budget in mid-March, announcing it plans to decommission 11 aging warships. Of those on the chopping block, four are based in Hampton Roads — two guided missile cruisers, the USS Leyte Gulf and USS Vicksburg; and two amphibious dock landing ships, the USS Gunston Hall and USS Tortuga.

In divesting the decades-old warships, the budget would secure nine new vessels. But the idea of shrinking the fleet at a faster rate than growing it is a hot-button topic among Virginia Congress members.

Rep. Rob Wittman R-1st District) said Monday that he is “adamantly opposed” to the Navy’s proposal to retire more ships than it will build in fiscal year 2024. He asserted that China is on track to surpass the capabilities and capacity of the U.S. in the next few years.

“I am deeply concerned with the Department of Defense’s willingness to accept near-term risk by divesting existing platforms without replacements,” Wittman said.

Wittman also voiced his concerns during the House’s Armed Services Committee hearing last week. The Congressman quoted former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who famously stated, “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”

“I am having a hard time seeing where we are going. I am not a mathematician but I want to know how you do addition by subtraction?”

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin defended the Navy’s plan, stating it is about quality over quantity.

“We don’t want to have to continue to invest to maintain aircraft and ships it that are costly and provide headwinds,” Austin began before he was interrupted by Wittman.

“With all due respect, quantity has a quality all its own. … My concern is if we don’t do both capability and capacity, we are going to find ourselves in incredibly challenging places,” Wittman said.

Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-2nd District) echoed Wittman Tuesday in a statement.

“Now is not the time to retire ships that have not reached the end of their service life. Our Navy is the best fighting force in the world, but we must ensure we have the number of ships needed to take the fleet to the fight,” Kiggans said.

Contributing to long-term problems with Naval infrastructure, Kiggans said, were the closings of half of the Navy’s public shipyards in the 1990s. And in January, four drydocks, including the only West Coast drydock capable of repairing aircraft carriers, were closed due to seismic activity.

“We must ensure we continue to invest in our shipbuilding and ship-repair industries. That must be a top priority in our defense budget this year and every year,” Kiggans said.

This is not the first time the Navy has sought to decommission warships. In the last budget cycle, four cruisers that had either reached or surpassed their expected 35-year service lives were retired.

Only the Vicksburg, which is facing retirement again, was spared. The 32-year-old cruiser is undergoing an overhaul at BAE Systems in Norfolk.

“Retiring vessels like the Vicksburg that haven’t reached their retirement age yet is a huge mistake — it decreases the size of our Navy and wastes taxpayer dollars,” Kiggans said.

The Navy tried to decommission the Gunston Hall and Tortuga, which are 35 and 34, during last year’s budget cycle. But the 117th Congress — a government trifecta held by the Democrats — blocked the effort.

Although Republicans won control of the House in 2022 elections, Wittman said the reaction to the Navy’s proposal would not be different.

“The composition of Congress has changed in the 118th, but the threats facing the U.S. military have not,” Wittman said.

But if history serves as an example, the USS Leyte Gulf is likely to be decommissioned in the coming year. At 38, the cruiser is three years past its expected 35-year service life.

“Ships should be retired when they are past their service life. This is a practical decision that is best for the fleet and our sailors,” Wittman said.

Wittman and Kiggans said they would like to see some ships repurposed, rather than retired, so as not to subtract from the fleet during the years it takes to build new warships.

Caitlyn Burchett, [email protected]

A Navy sailor charged with storming the U.S. Capitol was stationed on an aircraft carrier in Virginia when he joined a mob’s attack on the building, according to a court filing Monday.

The FBI arrested David Elizalde on Sunday in Arlington, Virginia, on misdemeanor charges, including disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, according to a court filing.

Elizalde told the FBI that he was stationed on the USS Harry S. Truman, which has a homeport of Naval Station Norfolk, when he drove alone from Norfolk, Virginia, to Washington, D.C., to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021. Then-President Donald Trump addressed a crowd of supporters before the mob attacked the Capitol, disrupting the congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

Videos show a man matching Elizalde’s description holding a flag when he entered the Capitol through the Senate wing doors and leaving the building about three minutes later through the same doors. Elizalde said he heeded a police officer’s command to leave the building but lingered outside “to observe the scene for a little while because he knew something historic was happening,” the FBI said.

Elizalde, an aviation structural mechanic, was an active-duty sailor on the day of the Capitol riot, according to a Navy Office of Information spokesperson. The Texas resident enlisted in June 2007, and also has served on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, according to Navy records.

Federal agents interviewed Elizalde at a Naval Criminal Investigative Service office on Naval Station Rota, in Rota, Spain, in December 2021. He had reported for duty in Spain on Jan. 22, 2021, the Navy records say.

The complaint against Elizalde was filed under seal in February and made public on Monday.

Online court records didn’t immediately name a lawyer representing Elizalde.

Approximately 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. 6 riot. Many of them are military veterans, but only a few were on active duty at the time of the Capitol attack.

A Marine Corps officer was the first active-duty service member to be charged in the riot. Maj. Christopher Warnagiris, of Woodbridge, Virginia, was arrested in May 2021 and charged with assaulting an officer at the Capitol. Three other active-duty Marines were charged in January with participating in the riot.

The USS George Bush’s deployment has been extended following a series of Iranian attacks in Syria.

The extended deployment means the return of more than 5,000 Norfolk-based sailors won’t happen as scheduled.

“Last week, the Department of Defense ordered the U.S. Navy’s George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group be postured to bolster the capabilities of CENTCOM (U.S. Central Command) in the Middle East,” said Col. Joe Buccino, spokesperson for U.S. Central Command, in a statement emailed Monday to The Virginian-Pilot.

The deployment was extended after a series of attacks in Syria over the past two weeks. On March 23, an Iranian unmanned aerial vehicle struck a maintenance facility on a Coalition base near Hasakah, Syria, killing a U.S. contractor and injuring five U.S. service members and one additional contractor. On March 31, Syrian Democratic Forces killed two ISIS suicide bombers in Hasakah, Syria. The suicide bombers were ambushed and killed before they were able to detonate their explosives.

In response, U.S. Central Command released a statement via Twitter: “U.S. forces and Syrian Democratic Forces are exploiting the information from the explosives and material for follow-on raids against ISIS. CENTCOM is committed to the enduring defeat of ISIS alongside our partners in Iraq and Syria.”

News of the Bush’s extension was first reported Friday by Reuters, nearly eight months since Bush sailors moved the flagship’s American flag from the fantail to the mast. The carrier will be supported by guided-missile destroyer USS Delbert D. Black and guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf, which departed around Aug. 10, 2022, alongside the Bush from Naval Station Norfolk for a scheduled deployment.

The USNS Arctic, a Military Sealift Command fast combat support ship, will provide additional support to the Bush strike group, and the DoD also expedited the scheduled deployment of an A-10 fighter squadron to the region.

“Collectively, these actions demonstrate the United States’ ability to rapidly reposition forces across the globe and underscores that all necessary measures will be taken to defend U.S. forces. We are committed to supporting the defeat-ISIS mission alongside a global coalition in Syria and are prepared to respond to a range of contingencies in the Middle East if needed,” Buccino said.

During this extension, Buccino confirmed the Bush strike group will be under the U.S. European Command, which includes the Baltic and Mediterranean seas. According to Marine Vessel Traffic, three days the Bush was reportedly in the Ionian Sea, off the coast of Italy, heading south to the Mediterranean Sea.

It is unclear how long the Bush’s return will be delayed.

Caitlyn Burchett, [email protected]

After gaining 30 pounds during the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Daniel Murillo is finally getting back into fighting shape.

Early pandemic lockdowns, endless hours on his laptop and heightened stress led Murillo, 27, to reach for cookies and chips in the barracks at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Gyms were closed, organized exercise was out and Murillo’s motivation to work out on his own was low.

“I could notice it,” said Murillo, who is 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighed as much as 192 pounds. “The uniform was tighter.”

Murillo wasn’t the only service member dealing with extra weight. New research found that obesity in the U.S. military surged during the pandemic. In the Army alone, nearly 10,000 active duty soldiers developed obesity between February 2019 and June 2021, pushing the rate to nearly a quarter of the troops studied. Increases were seen in the U.S. Navy and the Marines, too.

“The Army and the other services need to focus on how to bring the forces back to fitness,” said Tracey Perez Koehlmoos, director of the Center for Health Services Research at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland, who led the research.

Overweight and obese troops are more likely to be injured and less likely to endure the physical demands of their profession. The military loses more than 650,000 workdays each year because of extra weight and obesity-related health costs exceed $1.5 billion annually for current and former service members and their families, federal research shows.

More recent data won’t be available until later this year, said Koehlmoos. But there’s no sign that the trend is ending, underscoring longstanding concerns about the readiness of America’s fighting forces.

Military leaders have been warning about the impact of obesity on the U.S. military for more than a decade, but the lingering pandemic effects highlight the need for urgent action, said retired Marine Corps Brigadier General Stephen Cheney, who co-authored a recent report on the problem.

“The numbers have not gotten better,” Cheney said in a November webinar held by the American Security Project, a nonprofit think tank. “They are just getting worse and worse and worse.”

In fiscal year 2022, the Army failed to make its recruiting goal for the first time, falling short by 15,000 recruits, or a quarter of the requirement. That’s largely because three-quarters of Americans aged 17 to 24 are not eligible for military service for several reasons, including extra weight. Being overweight is the biggest individual disqualifier, affecting more than 1 in 10 potential recruits, according to the report.

“It is devastating. We have a dramatic national security problem,” Cheney said.

Extra weight can make it difficult for service members to meet core fitness requirements, which differ depending on the military branch. In the Army, for instance, if soldiers can’t pass the Army Combat Fitness Test, a recently updated measure of ability, it could result in probation or end their military careers.

Koehlmoos and her team analyzed medical records for all active duty Army soldiers in the Military Health System Data Repository, a comprehensive archive. They looked at two periods: before the pandemic, from February 2019 to January 2020, and during the crisis, from September 2020 to June 2021. They excluded soldiers without complete records in both periods and those who were pregnant in the year before or during the study.

Of the cohort of nearly 200,000 soldiers who remained, the researchers found that nearly 27% who were healthy before the pandemic became overweight. And nearly 16% of those who were previously overweight became obese. Before the pandemic, about 18% of the soldiers were obese; by 2021, it grew to 23%.

The researchers relied on standard BMI, or body mass index, a calculation of weight and height used to categorize weight status. A person with a BMI of 18.5 to 25 is considered healthy, while a BMI of 25 to less than 30 is considered overweight. A BMI of 30 or higher is categorized as obese. Some experts claim that the BMI is a flawed measure that fails to account for muscle mass or underlying health status, though it remains a widely used tool.

In Murillo’s case, his BMI during the pandemic reached nearly 32. The North Carolina Army soldier knew he needed help, so he turned to a military dietician and started a strict exercise routine through the Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness, or H2F, program.

“We do two runs a week, 4 to 5 miles,” Murillo said. “Some mornings I wanted to quit, but I hung in there.”

Slowly, over months, Murillo has been able to reverse the trajectory. Now, his BMI is just over 27, which falls within the Defense Department’s standard, Koehlmoos said.

She found increases in other service branches, but focused first on the Army. The research squares with trends noted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which warned that in 2020, nearly 1 in 5 of all service members were obese.

The steady creep of obesity among service members is “alarming,” said Cheney. “The country has not approached obesity as the problem it really is,” he added.

Putting on extra pounds during the pandemic wasn’t just a military problem. A survey last year of American adults found that nearly half reported gaining weight after the first year of the COVID-19 emergency. Another study found a sharp rise in obesity among kids during the pandemic. The gains came in a country where more than 40% of American adults and nearly 20% of children struggle with obesity, according to the CDC.

“Why would we think the military is any different than a person who is not in the military?” said Dr. Amy Rothberg, an endocrinologist at the University of Michigan who directs a weight-loss program. “Under stress, we want to store calories.”

It will take broad measures to address the problem, including looking at the food offered in military cafeterias, understanding sleep patterns and treating service members with issues such as PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, Rothberg said. Regarding obesity as a chronic disease that requires comprehensive care, not just willpower, is key. “We need to meet military members where they are,” she said.

A new category of effective anti-obesity drugs, including semaglutide, marketed as Wegovy, could be a powerful aid, Rothberg said. TRICARE, the Defense Department’s health plan, covers such drugs, but uptake remains low. Since June 2021, when Wegovy was approved, just 174 service members have received prescriptions, TRICARE officials said. Novo Nordisk, which makes Wegovy, funded the security group’s report, but didn’t influence the research, Rothberg said.

“People are working hard at their weight and we have to give them whatever tools we have,” Rothberg said.

Sometimes, reading aloud is all it takes to bring families closer, even when military service members are miles from their loved ones.

United Through Reading’s mission is to help build that connection. Through the non-profit, service members can record themselves reading from a selection of children’s books for their loved ones to watch at home while they are away for extended periods.

“Sharing story time is just one of those way where we can keep that family bond strong, make an improvement to the child’s literacy and really be a contributing factor in a positive way to their continued wellbeing for the entire family,” Tim Farrell, CEO of United Through Reading, said.

The videos can be recorded and shared in many ways. Service members, whether they are parents, aunts and uncles, siblings and more, can record themselves reading on ships and stations around the world and send the video and book back home. There is also an app to keep them connected through story time. The goal is to boost morale for the service members and their families as well as encourage a love of literacy.

Jenny Lynne Stroup, a Virginia Beach resident, said her children, now 11 and 13, pull books off the shelf sometimes and remember reading that with their father while he was away years ago. They still have the recordings made when the kids were just a toddler and an infant. Creating and receiving those videos was something the whole family looked forward to over the many years they have all participated in United Through Reading’s mission.

“It not only provided us a chance to connect to us as his family, it provided him a chance to take a break,” Stroup said about her husband creating the videos while abroad.

She said her husband was able to talk to his family about things happening as well as reading, so it was yet another way for the family to connect.

Like Stroup, Farrell was among those who have made a recording through United Through Reading long before he got involved in the organization. The Air Force veteran said he remembers there were times when my kids just really wanted to see my face and hear my voice,” and United Through Reading provided that opportunity.

Back then, his recordings were sent home on a DVD. Now, the United Through Reading app helps keep families connected, even if they don’t have access to the more than 300 permanent recordings stations around the world or if the mobile reading station is not nearby.

The United Through Reading Mobile Story Station is equipped with everything a service member needs to record themselves reading aloud before deployment. There was a variety of books to choose from, good lighting, a comfy chair and a camera all set up in a van.

A United Through Reading representative said the mobile story station will be in Hampton Roads throughout April — the Month of the Military Child — visiting schools and attending various events.

For more information about United Through Reading, to find where to participate or to make a donation, go to unitedthroughreading.org.

Kelsey Kendall, [email protected]