The Army has launched an investigation after pornographic content was broadcast during a live video stream of a Special Forces training change of command ceremony on Thursday, May 30th. The incident occurred during the 1st Special Warfare Training Group (Airborne) ceremony at Fort Liberty’s John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School in North Carolina, which was streamed live on Facebook.

Viewers reported that the video feed abruptly switched to a scene of a nude man masturbating, as shared on various social media platforms, including the U.S. Army subreddit. The identity of the man and whether he is connected to the military remains unclear.

I’ve decided not to provide any links to the offensive imagery for a couple of reasons:

  1. I’ve seen it and will never be able to unsee it. Trust me, it’s definitely NSFW, and you don’t want to go there.
  2. It may encourage other idiots to hijack other military feeds in the future. No need to do that.

Although it’s a serious and disturbing incident, Duffel Blog chose to have a bit of fun with it on X.

 

The Center released a statement to Army Times, saying,

“The U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School is aware of an incident that occurred during the live stream of our 1st Special Warfare Training Group’s Change of Command ceremony on May 30. We take this matter seriously and are reviewing our procedures to mitigate future situations. The incident is currently under investigation by CID’s Cyber Crimes Unit.”

SF Change of command
A glitch free change of command ceremony back in 2019. Photo by Cpl. Nathanuel Mansfield

Task & Purpose reported on the event and the subsequent investigation on Saturday. On the same day as the ceremony, Brig. Gen. Guillaume “Will” Beaurpere emailed the center’s soldiers and civilians, apologizing for the “highly inappropriate content” and any distress caused. Center spokeswoman Elvia Kelly reiterated to Army Times, “Due to the ongoing investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment further.”

The school has advised anyone affected by the incident to seek assistance from the Army’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Prevention program.

This incident follows a similar controversy at Fort Liberty in 2020 when explicit tweets were posted from the official Fort Liberty Twitter account. An Army spokesman later confirmed that an account administrator was responsible for the tweets.