Marines have paved their way through the armed forces as “the few and the proud.” Built on a close knit and strict community, their platform emphasizes unity and respect among their members. However, a recent leak on social media exposing sexually explicit pictures of female members has led the community to pursue a meticulous course of remedial action.

On March 10th, extensive media coverage on CNN News revealed that an invite-only Facebook group known simply as “Marines United” was behind the leak of explicit photos. As the culprit of the cyber assault, hundreds of explicit photos were found on the page as the member count was over 1,000. Many of these pictures were released without the consent of the individuals depicted. Just as well, many of the group’s members had posted personal information about the women, including their name and their rank within the Marine Corps.

Already, some of the more than two-dozen identified women in the pictures received aggressive and abusive comments of a sexual nature. The actual activity of the page was discovered by a veteran and news reporter, Thomas Brennan, for the non-profit organization The War Horse. Its website and publication features “focus and clarity” to political and military commentary. As of mid-March, visiting The War Horse website prompts a pop-up to urge members of the military to report any sexual assaults they may have faced.

The explicit nature of the content extended from the page itself, as links featured on the group page led to online caches of Google Drive folders containing even more pictures. Upon further inspection, Brennan confirmed that some of these pictures were gathered from stalking or potential hacking efforts, evident in the voyeur nature of pictures. Immediately after finding the content, Brennan notified the Marine Corps directly about the published pictures. Marine Corps Spokesman, Capt. Ryan Alvis, expressed his gratuity to Brennan for notifying the corps, saying, “It allowed us to take immediate action to have the explicit photos taken down and to prepare to support potential victims. He also stated his desire to what actions would ‘best address this form of harassment in the future.’” By late January, when the complaint was filed, the corps had directed Facebook and Google to delete the accounts of the lewd picture providers, but only managed to remove it from mainstream search results. Even then, more and more pictures had surfaced from the still operational pages at the time.

Many women came forward to share their distress in seeing the pictures posted online. In speaking to news outlets about the images themselves, some of the women felt silenced by the release of the inappropriate images. Speaking anonymously to the Washington Post, one former marine said, “I wanted to be a positive influence on the community. And this diminished me.”  Former Lance Corporal Marisa Wyotek had even gone so far to claim that she was discouraged from re-enlisting.  According to the Daily News, there were even victims affected outside of the marines, being unaffiliated ex-girlfriends of other members who posted the pictures online.

Overall, many officials in the corps expressed their disapproval in the matter. The Chief Commander Robert Neller stated, “There is no honor in denigrating a fellow Marine in any way, shape or form,” after claiming that the actions of the culprits were not acceptable by the Marines’ code of conduct. Officials are approaching the matter seriously with careful attention to protocol in first-hand responses.

Shortly after the media outbreak detailing the incident, the marines sought reconciliation by making formal addresses about the incident to members in Southern California on the 14th and 15th of March. According to the official Marine website, Sergeant Maj. Brad Kasal had spoken to noncommissioned officers at various military installations to urge members to be devoted to others in casual settings, as they would be expected to in a combat based setting. Heavy emphasis was placed on maintaining respect for fellow female combatants. Additionally, Marine commandant Gen. Robert Neller had urged victims of the digital abuse to come forward. He also advised them via video message to report the incidents to chains of command, chaplains, or victim legal counsels.

To date, the US Department of Defense is still investigating the matter in depth. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service has continued their investigation with the intention of seeking felony charges against those that are responsible for the leak. On the other hand, the Pentagon has sought out a larger investigation to other branches of the military to ensure this conduct is not extensive to other groups.