The internet doesn't forget. In 2017, the United States Marine Corps was hit by a scandal so visceral it shook the Pentagon. It wasn't about a failed mission or a tactical blunder. It was about a private Facebook group called Marines United and the systematic, digital abuse of female service members. Among the names that surfaced during that firestorm was Kally Wayne.
Kally Wayne wasn't just a name in a headline. She was a former Marine who found herself at the center of a nightmare she never asked for.
Honestly, the details are pretty stomach-churning. We’re talking about a group with 30,000 members—mostly active-duty Marines, veterans, and even some British Royal Marines—who spent their free time sharing nonconsensual nude photos and videos of their female colleagues.
The Viral Nightmare of Kally Wayne
Kally Wayne joined the Corps in 2013. By 2016, she was out of the service. But the Corps wasn’t done with her, or rather, the men she served with weren't.
In early 2016, an ex-boyfriend—an active-duty Marine at the time—posted a private sex tape they had made years prior. He didn't just put it on a random corner of the web. He dropped it into a Facebook group where he knew it would be devoured. That video eventually migrated to Marines United.
It wasn't just a video. It was a catalyst for a campaign of harassment that felt impossible to stop. Wayne tried to go to the police. They told her that because she didn't live in North Carolina (where her ex was stationed), their hands were tied. She went to his command. Their response?
"Why don't you not make sex tapes?"
That kind of victim-blaming wasn't an outlier. It was the standard. Wayne became one of the few women to step out of the shadows and attach a face to the "anonymous" victims of the scandal. Represented by high-profile attorney Gloria Allred, Wayne stood before cameras to demand that the military take this seriously. She wasn't just fighting for her own reputation; she was calling out a "cancer" within the ranks.
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What Was Marines United, Exactly?
You've probably heard the term "revenge porn," but this was more like a digital locker room on steroids. Marines United was a closed Facebook group where members traded links to Google Drive folders. These folders weren't organized by subject. They were organized by name, rank, and duty station.
Imagine being a Marine at Camp Lejeune and finding out there’s a folder with your name on it, filled with photos you thought were private—or worse, photos taken of you while you were just doing your job, like picking up gear.
The comments under these posts were even darker. We’re talking about Marines—men sworn to protect—openly discussing and encouraging the sexual assault of the women in the photos.
Journalist Thomas Brennan, a Marine veteran himself, was the one who blew the lid off the whole thing through his outlet, The War Horse. When he started digging, he found that this wasn't just a few "bad apples." It was an entrenched subculture.
The Fallout: Investigations and Empty Promises?
The reaction from the top was swift, at least on paper. General Robert Neller, then-Commandant of the Marine Corps, released a video that went viral. He looked into the camera and told those involved that they were not "true warriors."
"If you can't or are unwilling to be a Marine who is going to treat your fellow Marines with respect and trust, then I don't want you in my Corps," Neller said.
But talk is cheap in the military if it isn't backed by the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice).
- NCIS Investigation: The Naval Criminal Investigative Service jumped in, eventually scanning over 130,000 images across nearly 170 social media sites.
- The Numbers: Despite the 30,000 members in the group, the number of actual punishments was relatively small. By 2018, only seven Marines had been court-martialed. Others received non-judicial punishments (NJP) or administrative separations.
- Policy Changes: The biggest shift was the update to Article 120c of the UCMJ. It made the nonconsensual distribution of "indecent visual recordings" a specific, punishable crime.
Kally Wayne's story highlighted a massive loophole. Because she was already out of the service when the scandal broke, the military's reach was limited. Her ex-boyfriend, however, was still in. The frustration for Wayne and many others was the slow pace of actual justice.
Why We Are Still Talking About This in 2026
You’d think a scandal this big would fix things. It didn’t.
Splinter groups like "Marines United 2.0" and "3.0" popped up almost immediately after the original was nuked. It’s a game of digital whack-a-mole. The underlying issue wasn't just a Facebook group; it was a culture that saw women as "others" rather than teammates.
Kally Wayne eventually spoke to Good Morning America and other major outlets, hoping her visibility would force the Corps to "actually take action." Her bravery sparked a national conversation about the PRIVATE Act, a bill aimed at criminalizing this behavior across the board.
The Takeaway
The Marines United scandal wasn't just about "nude photos." It was about the breakdown of "good order and discipline." When a service member can't trust the person standing next to them in a foxhole because that person is sharing their private life online, the whole system fails.
If you or someone you know is dealing with nonconsensual image sharing, there are actual steps to take now that didn't exist when Kally Wayne first went to the police:
- Document everything: Don't just delete the posts. Take screenshots of the content, the comments, and the profiles of those involved.
- Report to NCIS: If you are military, go straight to NCIS or your sexual assault response coordinator (SARC). They now have specific protocols for "online misconduct."
- Civilian Options: Organizations like the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI) provide resources for victims of nonconsensual pornography to get content removed from major platforms.
The legacy of Kally Wayne and the Marines United scandal serves as a reminder that "honor, courage, and commitment" have to exist online just as much as they do on the battlefield.