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

She made her mistake before Nakamura took the case.

Two days after the debriefing bay, before Nakamura had even been assigned, she went to Lieutenant Commander Amy Chen.

She went to Chen because Chen had been her division officer for two years. She went to Chen because Chen had been kind to her when she first arrived at the station, and had helped her through her first rough rescue, and had once driven her to the hospital when she had cut her hand on a broken cleat. She went to Chen because she believed, in the way that junior personnel believe, that her division officer was on her side.

She went to Chen's office on a Tuesday afternoon.

She said, "Ma'am, I need to tell you something."

She said, "The coordinates in the report are not the coordinates I was given."

She said, "I think someone altered the launch order."

She said, "I think it was Commander Rusk."

Chen listened to her for fifteen minutes.

Chen said, "Brooks, this is a very serious accusation."

Chen said, "Are you sure you want to make it?"

Chen said, "Have you considered that you might be mistaken?"

Leah said, "Ma'am, I heard the launch order. I know what I heard."

Chen said, "I'm going to have to document this conversation."

Leah said, "Ma'am, I understand."

Chen said, "You should go home and get some rest. I'll handle it."

Leah went home.

Two hours later, Chen called Rusk.

She said, "Sir, Brooks came to see me. She's making accusations. She says the launch order was altered. She says you altered it."

Rusk said, "What did you tell her?"

Chen said, "I told her I would handle it."

Rusk said, "Good. Handle it. And tell her I want to see her in my office tomorrow morning."

Chen said, "Sir."

Leah went to Rusk's office the next morning.

She had been summoned by a yeoman. She had not been told why. She had assumed it was about the accusations she had made to Chen.

It was about the accusations she had made to Chen.

Rusk had a recorder on his desk.

He pressed play.

Leah heard her own voice, saying the things she had said to Chen. "Someone altered the launch order." "I think it was Commander Rusk."

The recording stopped.

Rusk said, "Seaman Brooks, do you know what the penalty is for making a false accusation against a superior officer?"

Leah said, "Sir, the accusation is not false."

Rusk said, "The accusation is not false? The accusation is that a commander in the United States Coast Guard falsified an official record in order to cause a man's death. Do you know what that would mean if it were true? It would mean the end of my career. It would mean a court-martial. It would mean prison. It would mean that a man with twenty-four years of service — a man who has been awarded the Coast Guard Commendation Medal twice, a man who has been meritoriously promoted, a man who has served this country with honor — is going to be destroyed by the accusations of a rescue swimmer who went to the wrong place on a dark night and is looking for someone to blame."

Leah said, "Sir, I did not go to the wrong place. I went where the distress call came from."

Rusk said, "You went where you chose to go. Against orders. And a man died. And now you are trying to blame me for it."

Leah said, "Sir—"

Rusk said, "I'm going to give you a choice. You can submit a written statement saying you made a mistake, you accept responsibility for the delay, and you request a transfer to a different station. Or I can convene a board of inquiry and have you dismissed from the Coast Guard for dereliction of duty and making false accusations against a superior officer. Which is it going to be?"

Leah stood in front of his desk and did not answer.

Rusk said, "You have until Friday."

She did not submit the statement.

She called Nakamura instead.

She called him because she did not know what else to do, and because she had heard, through the crew lounge, that a CGIS investigator had been assigned to the case, and because she had decided, somewhere in the back of her mind, that if she was going to be destroyed, she was going to be destroyed for telling the truth.

Nakamura had answered his phone at 19:42 on a Thursday evening.

He had listened to her for seventeen minutes.

He had said, "Seaman Brooks, do not submit that statement. Do not transfer. Do not speak to Commander Rusk or Lieutenant Commander Chen again without me present. Come to my office tomorrow morning at eight."

She had said, "Senior Chief, I'm sorry to bother you on a Thursday night."

He had said, "Seaman Brooks, you are not bothering me. You are doing exactly what you should have done two weeks ago. Call me any time."

She had gone to his office the next morning at eight.

She had told him everything.

She had told him about the coordinates and the launch order and the watch officer and the tower log. She had told him about Marcus Dawson saying his vessel was being fired on. She had told him about the poaching. She had told him about the recording Rusk had played in his office and about the choice he had given her.

Nakamura had listened to all of it.

At the end, he had said, "Seaman Brooks, why did you go to Lieutenant Commander Chen?"

Leah had said, "Because I trusted her."

Nakamura had said, "Do you still trust her?"