Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 24, 1993 TAG: 9304240121
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The final report by Pentagon Inspector General Derek Vander Schaaf said 35 admirals and Marine generals would be referred to the secretary of the Navy for possible disciplinary or administrative action for condoning the conduct at Tailhook or for misleading investigators.
The report also implicated at least 140 Navy and Marine officers for alleged involvement in drunken or lewd conduct, or for lying to investigators. Their cases will be referred to a three-star Navy admiral and a Marine Corps general appointed to determine whether to authorize courts-martial, lesser disciplinary actions or administrative proceedings.
The most senior officer at the convention was Adm. Frank Kelso, then and now the chief of naval operations, who said he was unaware of scandalous conduct while it was occurring. It was not known if he is among the admirals and generals facing possible discipline.
The report, calling for the most widespread discipline of commissioned officers in the history of the armed forces, described how 83 women and seven men, some of them naval officers, were assaulted during the aviators' three-day convention in Las Vegas in September 1991. About 2,100 military personnel and civilians attended Tailhook, which takes its name from the device used to brake jets landing on aircraft carriers.
The report alleges incidents of sexual assault, indecent exposure, public sex and nudity, conduct unbecoming an officer and failure to act in a proper leadership role.
The final report went far beyond the Navy's first internal investigation, which implicated only a handful of junior officers. The report was published in February, but Defense Secretary Les Aspin chose not to release it until a new Navy secretary was nominated.
John Dalton, a former naval officer, was nominated Wednesday to become the secretary.
The Navy secretary must approve all court-martial sentences.
The Inspector General's report described the Tailhook convention as a "sexual free-fire zone," after which officers of all grades, including some of the most senior in the Navy, closed ranks and refused to cooperate with or lied outright to investigators.
That may be a more serious indictment of the naval service than the incidents of sexual misconduct, because the service's code of ethics rests on the principle of accountability.
"Some of the Navy's most senior officers were knowledgeable as to the excesses practiced at Tailhook 91; and by their inaction, those officers served to condone and even encourage the type of behavior that occurred there," Vander Schaaf's report said.
by CNB