Maria Puente

USA TODAY

Even the U.S. Navy is abandoning Bill Cosby.

The Navy announced Thursday it is revoking Cosby's title of honorary chief petty officer because of multiplying allegations of sexual abuse going back decades that were recently reignited.

Word came in a joint statement by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Master Chief Petty Officer Michael Stevens.

"The Navy is taking this action because allegations against Mr. Cosby are very serious and are in conflict with the Navy's core values of honor, courage and commitment," the statement said.

It's one more hit for the entertainment icon, and possibly one of the more painful for him.

The Associated Press reported Cosby enlisted in the Navy in 1956 and served four years as a hospital corpsman before being honorably discharged in 1960 as a 3rd class petty officer.

The honorary title was presented to him in 2011, although the press release about that on the Navy's website has since disappeared.

Cosby has been accused by nearly two-dozen women of drugging and sexually assaulting them in decades past. Other than angry denunciations from his lawyer, Cosby has declined to say much in response.

He has not been charged with a crime and may never be because of the statute of limitations, but the impact on his career, image and philanthropy has been profound: Performances have been cancelled, a planned new TV show was cancelled, and he's resigned from the boards of colleges and universities with which he was associated.

On Tuesday, he was sued in civil court by a woman who claims he molested her at the Playboy Mansion 40 years ago when she was 15. On Wednesday, three more women went public to accuse him of sexual abuse as their lawyer demanded he agree to be sued so that the truth or falsity of the allegations can be established in a court of law instead of the court of Twitter.

Not everyone commenting at the Navy's website approved of its action:

"I don't understand, for the life of me, how the Navy could do such a thing! It would be totally understandable if the evidence presented itself, and it was found that he was guilty as charged. From my understanding of the situation, these are nothing more than allegations for now. Nothing has been proven otherwise," wrote Chuck Swoboda.

Someone on Twitter made another point: