Navy warships carry the latest navigation, satellite and radar technology — their masts are a jumble of antennas and dishes.
But when the littoral combat ship USS Manchester left San Diego for deployment in April 2023, it carried one extra piece of equipment. A Starlink satellite dish — strapped to a wooden pallet — was attached above the ship's pilot house.
Littoral Combat Ships are small warships designed to operate closer to shore but do deploy over the open ocean. The Manchester carries between 80 and 120 sailors, a Navy spokesperson said.
Starlink provides high-speed internet across the globe via a network of satellites. Anyone can purchase a dish and subscribe to the service. In the spring of 2023 that's exactly what a group of 17 chiefs on board the Manchester did.
The details of the conspiracy are described in a Navy investigation first reported by Navy Times. When the satellite was discovered four months into the Manchester's deployment, the scheme unraveled. The ship's command senior chief, Grisel Marrero, admitted as much in a text message, the investigation says.
"The gig is up," Marrero texted an unnamed chief after being told the dish had been found.
Marrero is described in the investigation as the "ringleader" of the scheme. All but two chiefs on board helped pay for and used the network. All of them knew about it, the investigation found.
On any Navy ship, the "chief's mess" is comprised of the ship's chief petty officers — enlisted sailors in pay grades E-7 through E-9. They are the Navy's middle managers, responsible for supervising multiple work centers. The command master chief is the highest-ranking chief on board and serves as the liaison between the enlisted crew and the commanding officer.
On the Manchester, that person was Marrero.
Unauthorized satellite communications from a Navy ship at sea are a security risk, according to Clayton Swope, the deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"For a Navy warship at sea, it's very important to be sensitive about anything that could give away your position," Swope said. "The Russians have talked about a radar capability that they're developing that could detect and locate Starlink terminals."
Navy Captain Douglas Meagher, the commander of Littoral Combat Ship Squadron 3 in San Diego, wrote in the investigation that he'd never seen such misconduct among Navy chiefs.
"In over 25 years of naval service, I have never seen such heinous and egregious conduct by a Command Master Chief and an entire CPO Mess." Meagher wrote. "The deep level of manipulation is only overshadowed by the level of corrupt dealings in which CMC Marrero used to conceal the system."
The conspiracy
According to the investigation the chief's mess purchased and installed the Starlink system just before the ship deployed. A chief whose name is redacted in the investigation purchased the $2,800 satellite dish with their personal credit card and was reimbursed by their coconspirators.
The ship's Chief Petty Officer Association's treasurer paid the $1,000 per month internet service bill from the association's Navy Federal checking account, the investigation found. They collected $375 from each chief or $62.50 monthly.
The dish was installed and cables routed through various work centers on the ship. The router was placed in a trunk inside a damage control repair locker, the investigation found.
Marrero managed the network via an app on her phone. To control access to the network, she was the only person who knew the password. She'd personally type it into each chief's device to ensure only her fellow chiefs could use the Wi-Fi.
It didn't take long for sailors on board noticed a network named "Stinky" on their mobile devices and begin asking about accessing the ship's Wi-Fi. Marrero changed the name of the network to appear to be a wireless HP printer, the investigation found.
By May, the ship's executive officer asked one of the chiefs if they knew anything about an unauthorized Wi-Fi network. They said "no," the investigation found.
That same month the ship's captain, Cmdr. Colleen Moore, first asked Marrero if the chiefs had an unauthorized Wi-Fi network. Marrero denied it and would continue to deny the network existed until the dish was found that August.
Moore and her executive officer searched the interior of the ship but didn't find the network's router or the equipment Marrero purchased during a port call in Hawaii to strengthen it.
Navy ships have suggestion boxes where sailors can write notes to the captain. In June, Marrero intercepted a comment about the Wi-Fi and withheld it from Moore, the investigation found. In July another note asking for the Wi-Fi password did reach Moore, leading her to again question Marrero, who again denied the network existed, the investigation found.
The captain and her executive officer searched the interior of the ship again and did not find the satellite. During an all-hands call with the crew that month, Moore addressed the persistent rumors about a secret Wi-Fi network on board, telling her crew there wasn't one.
The fallout
The ship pulled into Guam in August 2023. A civilian Navy employee on board to install other communications equipment found the Starlink dish and reported it.
When the commanding officer was informed, she again asked Marrero about the dish. Marrero told the captain she "wasn't tracking" but would meet with the chief's mess, the investigation found.
At that meeting, an unnamed chief volunteered to "take the fall," and went to Moore to confess, the investigation found. They told Moore the Wi-Fi was only used when the ship was in port.
Moore did not believe that, the investigation says. The unnamed chief downloaded the Starlink usage logs and emailed them to Marrero, who then doctored them to make it appear like it was only used in port.
But the edits were sloppy and Moore wasn't fooled, the investigation says. That's when Marrero admitted to her role in the scheme.
All of the chiefs involved were referred for administrative punishment, the investigation says.
Marrero, who had been selected to become a Master Chief at the E-9 pay grade was instead sent to a special court-martial. In March, she pleaded guilty to her role in the Wi-Fi scheme and was reduced in rank to chief, or E-7.
It's important for sailors and other deployed troops to be able to stay in touch with friends and family, Swope said, but security has to be taken into account.
"It comes down to who has that on and off switch and the certainty that when that switch is turned off, that all those abilities to communicate those signals are truly turned off," Swope said.
The investigation found neither the ship nor its operations were compromised during the four months the network was active.
