How far would you go for some good Wi-Fi? Sure, plenty of people probably took advantage of their neighbor’s network from time to time – but very few people in this world would go so far as to install an unauthorized Starlink satellite dish on the side of a U.S. Navy warship. Well, that’s exactly what some senior enlisted leaders aboard the USS Manchester did.
It happened in April 2023 while the ship prepared for deployment to the West Pacific. Senior enlisted leaders installed a Starlink satellite dish on the Manchester during what’s known as a blanket aloft period, which is when a sailor needs to hang above or over the side of a ship to install something or perform some kind of maintenance.
An image obtained by Navy Times showed the dish affixed to a wood pallet with nothing but white tie-down straps attaching it to the ship. It was installed on the ship’s 05 weatherdeck. It is not a very heavily trafficked area of the ship, and shows how much of an effort it was to hide the unauthorized equipment.
The Wi-Fi network – nicknamed “Stinky” – was the brainchild of then Senior Chief Grisel Marrero. According to her biography, she has a background in intelligence, and while she may have been the ringleader, the Navy investigation says the entire chief’s mess was in on the scheme before it was discovered.
The Navy said Marrero and the other chiefs split the $2,800 cost of the Starlink satellite dish. Then Marrero collected either a monthly fee of $62.50 from her cohorts, or a one-time fee of $375, so they could have internet access while the ship was at sea. Because who needs operational security when the chiefs have emails to check and movies to stream?
Marrero was confronted about the existence of the unauthorized Wi-Fi network several times during deployment.
At first, she denied any knowledge of it, then she tried saying it was only used in port and even doctored some records from Starlink to try and back up her story. Then in August of 2023, a civilian contractor was installing an authorized satellite and discovered the Starlink dish. An unnamed sailor texted Marrero about the dish’s discovery. The Navy says she texted back, “the gig is up.”
The unauthorized network posed significant security risks, as the Manchester was operating in the Western Pacific, and the tensions with China in the region aren’t exactly cooled.
Marrero was eventually found guilty at a court-martial earlier this year and was demoted for her role in the scheme, which ultimately involved more than 15 members of the ship’s chiefs mess. All those involved faced administrative punishment.
