Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Hey, don’t staple your sailors!

I know this is hard to remember, but managers, don’t staple your subordinates! Or pepper spray them. You may think it is funny but I assure you, they do not, according to this report from the aircraft carrier the USS George H.W. Bush: He said Curtis, his boss, routinely threw him into a set of ...

TheeErin/Flickr
TheeErin/Flickr
TheeErin/Flickr

I know this is hard to remember, but managers, don't staple your subordinates! Or pepper spray them. You may think it is funny but I assure you, they do not, according to this report from the aircraft carrier the USS George H.W. Bush:

I know this is hard to remember, but managers, don’t staple your subordinates! Or pepper spray them. You may think it is funny but I assure you, they do not, according to this report from the aircraft carrier the USS George H.W. Bush:

He said Curtis, his boss, routinely threw him into a set of metal lockers in the office, so much so that they curved and warped. He said Curtis used pepper spray on him and other sailors, and that Curtis regularly used an office stapler to staple into his skin, mostly on his back and upper thigh. Curtis stapled him that way more than 100 times, Edmonds testified.

"He would come into the investigations office, open it up longways, and staple me in the upper thigh," Edmonds told the court.

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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