The Army is investigating how pornographic content aired during a video livestream of a special forces training change of command ceremony on Thursday.
During the 1st Special Warfare Training Group (Airborne) ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Liberty, North Carolina the group broadcast the event live on Facebook.
As the ceremony took place the video feed switched to show a nude man masturbating, according to various social media postings, including those shared to the U.S. Army subreddit.
The identity of the man in the video was not disclosed, nor is it clear if the person was a military member or if the footage was from another source.
The center provided the following statement to Army Times today:
“The U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School is aware of an incident that occurred during the live stream of our 1st Special Warfare Training Group’s Change of Command ceremony on May 30. We take this matter seriously and are reviewing our procedures to mitigate future situations. The incident is currently under investigation by CID’s Cyber Crimes Unit.”
The website Task & Purpose reported on this event and the Army’s investigation on Saturday.
In an email sent to the center’s soldiers and civilians on the same day as the ceremony obtained by Army Times and other media outlets, Brig. Gen. Guillaume “Will” Beaurpere offered an apology for those “who observed the highly inappropriate content” and any impact it had on viewers.
“We take this matter seriously and addressed the SWCS enterprise with an email sharing resources available for those who were impacted by the incident,” center spokeswoman Elvia Kelly told Army Times in an email today. “Due to the ongoing investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
The school also encouraged anyone negatively affected by the incident to reach out to the Army’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Prevention program.
This isn’t the first time in recent years that a sexual controversy has found its way to units on Fort Liberty.
In a 2020 incident, the official Twitter account of Fort Liberty, then Fort Bragg, posted a string of explicit tweets of a sexual nature. An Army spokesman at the time told Task & Purpose that an account administrator later identified himself as the source of the graphic tweets.
Riley Ceder is an editorial fellow at Military Times, where he covers breaking news, criminal justice and human interest stories. He previously worked as an investigative practicum student at The Washington Post, where he contributed to the ongoing Abused by the Badge investigation.
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.
