By FireRescue1 Staff
NEWPORT, R.I. — A federal investigation found that Navy employees purposely falsified training records for first responders, leaving them without critical emergency training.
The Herald News reported that thousands of faulty or falsified records were found by a Navy inspector general investigation after firefighter George Haywood alerted officials that his name was on records that falsely showed his attendance for a training session he never completed.
“The Navy will be better served in emergency situations because a whistleblower disclosed wrongdoing,” Special Counsel Henry Kerner said in a statement.
The report, which was dated June 2017, but sent to President Trump this week, said that virtually all of Naval Station Newport Fire & Emergency Services’ 29 responders missed training sessions but were falsely listed as having attended even though they were not working at the time.
The report said that more than 100 cases included respirator and spinal injury training.
Haywood told officials that the lack of training proved to be an issue in several incidents, such as when a firefighter was dropped from a stretcher while being handled by colleagues after suffering chest pains.
After the incident, Haywood said a false “lifting and moving patients” training record was filed for the person who had treated him.
“I have no idea. I don’t conduct the actual trainings,” the department’s training officer said when asked about the courses. “I don’t physically teach the trainings. I don’t know what the companies do. I am in my office behind my desk, behind my computer doing my wonderful spreadsheets.”
Some employees said in the investigation that they were forced to sign off on the false records by management, and one claimed the fire chief “screamed at him” when he voiced concern.
The report suggested many ways to fix the issue, and they have been adopted and will soon become Navy-wide policy.
“We recognize there were issues in the past and have been working hard to correct them,” Naval Station Newport spokeswoman Lisa Woodbury Rama said. “Since the inspection, the department has been focusing on our internal processes and procedures. We are confident in the training our personnel have to respond to emergencies onboard the installation.”