I was an NCO (sergeant) in the Army and have no Navy experience, but it's all DOD so it's pretty much the same. Her Chief CANNOT threaten her with retaliation for using the grievance process! That's a HUGE BIG no-no!! Obviously, what happened here is the chief's threat kept your wife from reporting it which gave the chief time to take revenge on her (in the form of a bad evaluation). What your wife should have done (and if I find a time machine, I'll loan it to you
) is that she should have immediately reported the threat. That would have put the leadership under obligation to separate the two of them either with a transfer or a temporary reassignment of one or the other or both of them until the issue is resolved.
What your wife needs to do now is IMMEDIATELY go to her chain of command above this chief and report the threat and show the unfavorable evaluation as evidence. Unfortunately because she did wait, it could be made to look like she is just a "disgruntled employee" trying to cry about it. That's a risk that she is just going to HAVE TO take. This chief has violated her Code of Conduct as a military leader and has gotten close to committing a crime under UCMJ. If she has made any SPECIFIC threats (e.g. "If you talk to anyone about this I'll [do whatever] to you" that's a crime). Of course, the burden of proof will be on your wife in a court martial. So, she needs to put this into the leadership's hands.
Listen, if she talked to leadership who were looking into this and the chief got angry about it, it's probably because they have had other complaints about her. There are things going on above your wife's head that she doesn't know about. For instance, why was this chief transfer into this unit and out of her other one? Was it an early transfer?
Also, when you're wife complains she needs to complain to the IG (Inspector General) or whatever the equivalent in the Navy is. She needs to notify her chain of command because if she goes around them, they'll take offense and she doesn't want that. However, if she feels that she's being harrassed by her leadership (i.e. her chief) then she has a right to report it to the IG. They are like the military's HR department (among other things). They have to investigate abuses of power, sexual harrassment, and things like that.
In an nutshell, what your wife needs to do is gather the
personal courage (which is one of the values she is supposed to live as a sailor anyway) and get the light shining on this. The chief wants to keep her "evil deeds" in the dark. NO WAY! Your wife needs to get her chain of command notified and involved and she needs to say that she wants to talk to the IG officer. She is also ALWAYS welcome to speak to a Chaplain. While the chaplain is not in her chain of command and is not part of the IG, the chaplain IS an officer. As such, he is required to listen and to take these things seriously. He may be a very valuable resource for helping her notify the proper authorities about this.
Hey, one other thing. When your wife reported this issue to begin with, her confidence was broken because the leadership had to address the issue with the chief. That might be how she heard about it. That's another risk that your wife has to assume for now. Talking to a chaplain is pretty much ALWAYS kept in confidence. Talking to the IG is pretty much always in confidence also.
If there's one thing I saw as a sergeant it's this: Once you start complaining in the military, you CAN'T stop until the issue is resolved! If you do (as your wife did), the "bad guy" is surely going to come kick your @#%!. You have to keep the momentum of your complaint up throughout the entire process until the issue is resolved! Think of it like trying to bail water out of a mud hole. If you stop bailing, the water IS going to come back in and fill the hole! You gotta keep it going until it's settled.
As a member of the military, your wife has the RIGHT to speak to the IG officer and a chaplain anytime she feels the need. They cannot deny her that right.
If your wife got a bad eval out of this, the least she can do is return the favor to the chief!
Dammit! That REALLY burns my shorts! Some of us worked very, very hard to be trustworthy, strong leaders! Then we have these a-hole hacks with the stripes kicking everyone around! And the gov't wonders why no one wants to enlist.
