Duck Duck Go, my favorite search engine, defines patriotism as follows:
- Love of and devotion to one’s country.
- Love of one’s country; the passion which moves a person to serve his country, either in defending it from invasion or in protecting its rights and maintaining its laws and institutions.
- Love of country embodied or personified; patriots collectively.
A person who plays a part in the country’s military preparedness needs to espouse those values. Unfortunately, not everyone does.
Fox 13 reported yesterday that Elaine Marie Thomas, a metallurgist in Washington state, has pleaded guilty to faking the results of strength tests on steel used to make U.S. Navy submarines.
The article reports:
Elaine Marie Thomas, 67, of Auburn, Washington, was the director of metallurgy at a foundry in Tacoma that supplied steel castings used by Navy contractors Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding to make submarine hulls.
From 1985 through 2017, Thomas falsified the results of strength and toughness tests for at least 240 productions of steel — about half the steel the foundry produced for the Navy, according to her plea agreement, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma. The tests were intended to show that the steel would not fail in a collision or in certain “wartime scenarios,” the Justice Department said.
There was no allegation that any submarine hulls failed, but authorities said the Navy had incurred increased costs and maintenance to ensure they remain seaworthy. The government did not disclose which subs were affected.
Thomas faces up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine when she is sentenced in February. However, the Justice Department said it would recommend a prison term at the low end of whatever the court determines is the standard sentencing range in her case.
In a statement filed in U.S. District Court on her behalf Monday, her attorney, John Carpenter, said Thomas “took shortcuts.”
“Ms. Thomas never intended to compromise the integrity of any material and is gratified that the government’s testing does not suggest that the structural integrity of any submarine was in fact compromised,” Carpenter wrote. “This offense is unique in that it was neither motivated by greed nor any desire for personal enrichment. She regrets that she failed to follow her moral compass – admitting to false statements is hardly how she envisioned living out her retirement years.”
Thomas’ conduct came to light in 2017, when a metallurgist being groomed to replace her noticed suspicious test results and alerted their company, Kansas City-based Bradken Inc., which acquired the foundry in 2008.
I am concerned that the Justice Department said it would “recommend a prison term at the low end of whatever the court determines is the standard sentencing range in her case.” The actions of this person could have resulted in the unnecessary loss of life of American military personnel. I think she deserves more than the minimum sentence. It is very fortunate that no lives were lost.