THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 27, 1996 TAG: 9601270269
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
The Senate withheld confirmation of a Navy admiral Friday after he voiced regrets about his handling of a 1989 sexual harassment case in which a female midshipman was chained to a urinal by male classmates.
The Senate Armed Services Committee accepted President Clinton's nomination of Adm. Joseph Prueher to become the U.S. Pacific commander, one of the nation's top military posts. But the full Senate held off confirmation, indicating that one or more senators may object.
In a voice vote, the Senate did confirm Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the military's No. 2 post. Ralston's nomination was also handled Friday by the armed services panel.
Prueher said he told the young woman's father, Dr. Gregory Dreyer, that she appeared to be smiling in photographs taken by her jeering assailants. It was a comment meant to reassure the father that the woman had not suffered excessively. But it has dogged Prueher since, even as the Navy continued to promote him to other command positions.
``I told him that she was presumably not distressed and in fact appeared to be smiling in one of the photos,'' Prueher said, recounting the conversation to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday.
``Somehow or another he interpreted my comments as a threat to distribute the photos,'' Prueher said. ``That was not my intent. I can't think of anything that I said that would have made that seem to be a threat. And in fact the photos were destroyed a few days after that and never appeared anywhere.''
Caroline Dreyer, stepmother of the victim, said in a telephone interview Friday that she and her husband have been trying to block Prueher's promotion because of what they view as his callous response to the incident.
``He has skated through this unscathed and it's incredible to us because he was the real villain,'' Caroline Dreyer said.
At one point during the academy's investigation of the December 1989 case, according to Caroline Dreyer, Prueher called the victim, Gwen Dreyer, into his office and tried to convince her that her parents were overreacting to the case and that ``we all know it was in good fun.''
Dreyer, whose father and grandfather were Naval Academy graduates, quit the academy in disgust after her assailants received lenient punishment. Two midshipmen lost leave time and were issued demerits, while six others received written reprimands.
Prueher, who was commandant of midshipmen at the academy in Annapolis, Md., from 1989 to 1991, took the lead role in investigating the case. After stints in other posts, he took command of the 6th Fleet in 1993 and now serves as vice chief of naval operations, the Navy's No. 2 post.
The Senate confirmed Prueher for both of those senior positions and questioned him about the urinal case each time. Each time he expressed similar regrets about the incident and his remarks to Dreyer's father.
The issue of sexual harassment is doubly significant in this case because Prueher is succeeding an admiral relieved of his command after making an insensitive remark about a sexual assault case.
President Clinton asked for Adm. Richard Macke's resignation last November after Macke told reporters that three U.S. servicemen who raped a 12-year-old Japanese girl on Okinawa could have hired a prostitute.
If the Senate confirms his nomination, Prueher will take over the largest of the military's five regional commands. He would control not only Navy forces but all 100,000 U.S. military personnel in the Pacific.
Earlier, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the second-ranking Republican on the committee, praised Prueher and Ralston. ``Both of you are eminently qualified,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Adm. Joseph Prueher was nominated to become the U.S. Pacific
commander, one of the top military posts.
KEYWORDS: SEXUAL HARASSMENT U.S. NAVY by CNB