25 My Commander Blamed Me For A Drowning In Front Of The Whole Crew — He Didn't Know A 10-Year-Old Boy Still Had My Glove

Commander Rusk's court-martial began the following April.

It was held in a military courtroom at the Naval Support Activity in Norfolk. It was presided over by a military judge named Commander Helena Vasquez. It lasted eleven days.

The prosecution called fourteen witnesses.

Lieutenant Commander Amy Chen testified under immunity. She was on the stand for two hours. She described the phone call she had received from Rusk at 21:49 on the night of the rescue. She described the order he had given her. She described the fear she had felt at disobeying him. She described the lie she had told on the tower log. She described the way she had watched, for two weeks, as Leah Brooks was publicly destroyed for something she had not done.

She cried on the stand. Not for herself. For Brooks.

Senior Chief Nakamura testified for four hours. He walked the court through the recording and the tower log and the buoy tag and the chart. He walked them through the sequence of events on the night of the rescue. He walked them through the poaching operation and the protection that Rusk had provided for three years.

Eli Dawson testified for thirty minutes.

He was eleven years old by then. He had turned eleven in March. He walked into the courtroom holding his grandmother's hand and he sat in the witness chair and he told the court what he had seen and heard on the night his father died.

He told them about the cooler lid. He told them about the water. He told them about the larger vessel with no running lights. He told them about the sound of gunfire and about his father shouting at him to stay down. He told them about his father lifting him onto the cooler lid and telling him to hold on and not let go.

He told them about the rescue swimmer.

He said, "She came out of the dark and she was yelling my name and she grabbed my hand and she pulled me out of the water. And her glove came off. And she didn't stop. She kept pulling me."

He said, "I want to tell the court that she did not leave my father behind. My father told her where we were. My father told her the coordinates. She went to him. She was too late because somebody sent her the wrong way. She did not leave him behind."

He said, "I held her glove for two weeks. I gave it back to her in the courtroom. I told her I was sorry I tore it."

The courtroom was silent.

The defense attorney did not cross-examine him.

Leah testified on the seventh day.

She was on the stand for three hours. She was asked about the launch. She was asked about the coordinates. She was asked about the order to return to sector 4. She was asked why she had disobeyed it.

She said, "Because a man was in the water with his son."

She was asked about the debriefing bay. She was asked about Commander Rusk's threat. She was asked about the recorder on his desk. She was asked about the choice he had given her.

She said, "I was told to sign a false statement or be dismissed from the Coast Guard. I did not sign the statement."

She was asked why.

She said, "Because Marcus Dawson had a son who was going to grow up without a father. And I was not going to let that son grow up believing that the Coast Guard had blamed his father's death on a rescue swimmer who did her job."

She was asked about the glove.

She said, "The glove came off in the water. Eli Dawson held on to it for two weeks. He gave it back to me. It is on the evidence table. The buoy tag on it is from sector 2. That is where I was. That is where Marcus Dawson was. That is where his son was. And that is where Commander Rusk knew they were when he sent me to sector 4."

The defense attorney cross-examined her for ninety minutes.

He tried to make her angry. He tried to make her cry. He tried to make her say something that would contradict the buoy tag or the recording or the testimony of Eli Dawson.

She did not.

At the end of the cross-examination, he asked her one last question.

"Seaman Brooks," he said, "if you had followed orders, would Marcus Dawson be alive today?"

Leah looked at him.

"No," she said. "If I had followed orders, I would not have been in sector 2. I would have been in sector 4. And Marcus Dawson would have drowned in sector 2 without anyone looking for him. And Eli Dawson would have drowned with him."