The Marine Corps’ chef to the commandant was just fired over comments he made on a reality cooking show disparaging female Marines.
“Sgt. Cala was removed from the commandant’s staff and reassigned to the Marine Enlisted Aide Program,” Capt. Diann Rosenfeld said Wednesday to the Marine Corps Times.
Sgt. Frank Cala attracted the wrong kind of attention during the airing of an episode of “Hell’s Kitchen” on April 1. In an exit interview as he was being taken off the show, he said women were the cause of his demise.
“That’s exactly why I get [expletive] female Marines and I send them back wherever the [expletive] they came from,” Cala said in the interview.
Cala issued an apology Tuesday in a YouTube video and his boss Marine Gunnery Sgt. Brian Kauten backed him up by saying the show took his remarks out of context with sly editing. That justification, however, wasn’t enough to save his position. Cala’s comments were apparently egregious enough to prompt serious discipline from the Marine Corps.
“I have nothing but the utmost respect for my fellow Marines, regardless of gender,” Cala said. “I want to apologize from the bottom of my heart to everybody that I’ve disappointed.”
Marine Lt. Col. Kate Germano, a noted advocate for equality in the military, said Cala’s comments are unsurprising because of deep gender bias in the service. For Germano, this incident is yet another reason to fully integrate men and women at boot camp, since it would break down the problem of “othering” that occurs under segregation and would contribute to the demise of the hyper-masculine, sexist environment.
Follow Jonah Bennett on Twitter
Send tips to jonah@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.