Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 24, 1993 TAG: 9304240156
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NORMAN KEMPSTER LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
If a woman approached - and, over the three nights of the Tailhook Association's 1991 convention, hundreds did - a scout would shout out "clear deck." When she tried to make her way through, the walls would close in with a flurry of grabbing, pinching and groping of her breasts, buttocks and legs. Some had at least some of their clothing ripped off.
In its investigative report on the Tailhook incident, the Pentagon Inspector General's office provided the first comprehensive account of what actually happened over the three nights in September 1991 when the military's cult of the "young warrior" moved beyond coarse, fraternity-style hijinks to public indecency and alleged assaults.
At least 83 woman were assaulted during the three days of debauchery. Although the 1991 convention provoked outrage, the activities were far from unprecedented in the history of the convention, which dates to 1956.
"Similar behavior had occurred at previous conventions," the report said. "The emerging pattern of some of the activities, such as the gantlet, began to assume the aura of `tradition.' There is even some evidence to suggest that Tailhook 91 was `tame' in comparison to earlier conventions. . . . In fact, many of the younger officers who attended Tailhook 91 felt the excesses that occurred there were condoned by the Navy."
Acts of indecency included "streaking" naked through hotel suites or across the hotel patio, sometimes in groups as large as 10, and exposing one's testicles to onlookers, a practice investigators said was engaged in by 14 officers.
The most serious offenses at the convention occurred near 22 "hospitality suites" clustered on the hotel's third floor. Strippers and prostitutes plied their trade there to the background of pornographic videos. Beer and liquor flowed freely.
As the report emphasized, sexual activity in the suites was almost exclusively consensual. Unwilling participants, however, were drawn into the events in the hall - in what the fliers called the "gantlet."
The inspector general said the gantlet swept up some women who seemed to enjoy the attention along with others, including female Navy officers, who were outraged and shaken by the experience.
The third-floor hallway was about 6 feet wide and dimly lighted. The report said that the corridor was extremely crowded on Friday and Saturday evening. According to three witnesses, a sign was posted on the floor warning: "Gauntlet - enter at your own risk."
The report said the gantlet appeared well-organized even though most of the participants were drunk. When a woman appeared, a scout would shout "clear deck" if he considered her attractive enough to molest or "wave off" if he thought her too unattractive. The terms are drawn from aircraft carrier flight operations.
Many women reportedly were lured unwittingly into the gantlet by officers who steered them toward it casually. The awaiting aviators appeared to arrange themselves so that women would not recognize what they were approaching, the report said.
When they emerged, one Navy enlisted man told investigators, victims looked like they had been through a pinball machine.
"Many eyewitness accounts described women who had articles of clothing ripped or removed as they went through the gantlet," the report said. "One particularly disturbing incident involved an intoxicated college freshman who was stripped from the waist down as she was passed overhead through the gantlet and then left on the hallway floor."
The report said a 24-year-old Navy officer related that she was groped and grabbed by five or six men while two male Navy officers she knew stood by and did nothing.
"One victim, a 32-year-old female, reported that she attended Tailhook 91 with her [husband], a Navy officer; her mother; and two of her mother's female friends," the report said. "As the group walked through the hallway the victim, who was wearing a formal cocktail dress, was suddenly grabbed around the waist and lifted above the crowd by two men. The men lifted the skirt of her dress above her waist and pushed their hands between her legs. . . . Our investigation revealed that the victim's mother as well as one of her mother's friends were also indecently assaulted as they walked through the hallway."
More than one-third of the sex-related assaults reported in private rooms at the convention occurred in suites rented by aviators associated with the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Southern California, investigators said. The study describes five "indecent assaults" that took place in one of the suites.
by CNB