HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - HNN Investigates uncovers new details from a federal whistleblower investigation launched after safety and discrimination complaints by the former Red Hill fuels director.
She claims her warnings were ignored before the 2021 fuel leak disaster.
“All the contractor failures, all the system failures, all the harassment, that they essentially took my civil rights away, abuse, abuse of power, gender discrimination,” said Lt. Commander Shannon Bencs.
But a Department of Defense Inspector General preliminary report clears Navy leaders and blames her for a hostile workplace.
Bencs was among the first women in the Navy to serve on America’s nuclear-powered submarines.
In 2020, she became the fuels director of the underground Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility and quickly discovered a slew of safety problems.
At Pearl Harbor’s Hotel Pier across the Arizona Memorial, she reported an active leak before the May 2021 spill. That lead to the fuel leak disaster six months later contaminating the Navy’s drinking water and sickening thousands of people.
Bence was sidelined by her her commanding officer, Capt. Trent Kalp, over questions on her performance and professionalism.
Kalp was relieved of command and replaced just ahead of the November 2021 leak.
Captain Albert Lee Hornyak took over, but Bencs says she continued to be treated differently because she’s a woman.
“He just continued the same gaslighting to me,” said Bencs.
“It was very clear that he was...
In a July 2, 2025, press release, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a new "DOJ-HHS False Claims Act Working Group" (the Working Group) and identified multiple priority enforcement effo...