Two navy lieutenants got themselves into trouble in 2017 for drawing a penis in the sky with jet streams, and now have records of their conversation while doing it.
The incident first became an issue when a woman in Washington State took a photo of the phallic image and complained online. Several other locals also snapped pictures and shared them online. The image then went viral.
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A squadron in Whidbey Island Naval Air Station caught wind of the incident and an investigation was conducted.
“Aircrew maneuvered an EA-18G aircraft in a pattern that resulted in contrails depicting an obscene symbol when viewed from the ground,” an alert sent from the squadron read. “Media attention is expected.”
Two lieutenants were attached to the event. The junior officers received “non-punitive letters of instruction” but were deemed able to continue flying.
“They 100 percent need to be held accountable, but if they are allowed to continue in naval aviation this is not a mistake they will repeat,” the squadron’s executive officer wrote. “Minus the current circumstances, they have never given me a reason to doubt their trustworthiness or their resolve to be officers in the Navy.”
Interestingly, the investigation dug up a transcript of the conversation recorded in-flight as the two drew the image. The Navy Times has recently gotten a copy of the investigation. The conversation can be read below:
“Draw a giant penis,” stated an electronic warfare officer (or EWO) to the pilot in the same cockpit, “That would be awesome.”
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“What did you do on your flight?” joked the pilot. “Oh, we turned dinosaurs into sky penises.”
“You should totally try to draw a penis,” the EWO responded.
“I could definitely draw one, that would be easy,” the pilot stated. “I could basically draw a figure eight and turn around and come back. I’m gonna go down, grab some speed and hopefully get out of the contrail layer so they’re not connected to each other.”
The pilot later gave a statement for the investigation saying that he was sorry for making the image. He also shared that he thought the image would have disappeared faster than it did.
“Soon after, I realized the extent of our actions,” the pilot said in the statement. “That the contrails were remaining longer than predicted.”
Again, both officers were allowed to fly again without punishment. Though, they were certainly lectured on the incident.
