Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 26, 1990                   TAG: 9004260702
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A/6   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Medium

PAIR SENTENCED IN FAILED EFFORT TO SELL SECRETS

The sentences were handed down Tuesday and Wednesday at the Norfolk Naval Station after slightly more than an hour's deliberations by court-martial panels.

The men pleaded guilty to smuggling microfiches of sensitive material off their ship. One admitted to then going from bar to bar looking for somebody to drive him to the Soviet Embassy in Washington before a former shipmate he approached blew the whistle on them.

All of the documents were recovered, and none was believed to have been passed to the Soviets, officials said.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Charles Edward Schoof, 21, of Camp Pendleton, Calif., was sentenced to 25 years in a federal penitentiary. Schoof, described as the one who came up with the idea of selling Navy secrets to the Soviets, also was stripped of all rank, forfeited all pay and allowances and will receive a dishonorable discharge.

Petty Officer 3rd Class John Joseph Haeger, who helped Schoof by opening a document safe aboard their vessel, the tank landing ship Fairfax County, was sentenced to 19 years. Haeger, 20, of Greenwich, Conn., was given identical forfeitures of pay and allowances and a dishonorable discharge.

Both men are operations specialists, trained in radar, communications, electronic countermeasures and navigational plotting. They were arrested aboard ship Dec. 1.

Schoof and Haeger were convicted of taking a dozen microfiche films, containing a large number of pages of printed text, from a safe in the combat information center of the Fairfax County and preparing to sell it to the Soviet Union.

Schoof called the Soviet Embassy and asked whether someone would come get the classified material, but the Soviets are forbidden to travel as far as southeastern Virginia, investigators said.

Navy investigators said a former shipmate, Peter Atkins, who was in the process of getting out of the Navy, ultimately gave the commanding officer of the Fairfax County information about the espionage.

Atkins, 27, now living in Cocoa Beach, Fla., was awaiting discharge from the Navy in November when he saw Schoof at a Norfolk motel. Schoof called him into the restroom and showed him a microfiche marked "Secret."

Someone tried to come into the restroom, and the conversation abruptly ended, Atkins said. Schoof then borrowed a motorcycle and headed toward Washington, but partway there, he began to feel remorse and turned around, he said.

Still, he returned to the motel the same night and approached Atkins again, offering him $1,000 to drive him to Washington, Atkins testified.

Atkins said that he thought about the proposition for a few days, and that when he saw Schoof again he said to give him the $1,000 and "I'll do what you want."

Atkins said he later had second thoughts and told another former shipmate on the Fairfax County about the classified documents. That shipmate, who was not identified in court, contacted the ship's commanding officer. The arrests followed.