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

DATE: SUNDAY, September 19, 1993                   TAG: 9309190136
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

TAILHOOK ACCUSER: GOING PUBLIC BROUGHT NO REGRETS

But she has no regrets about coming forward with accusations she was sexually harassed by U.S. Navy officers at the 1991 Tailhook convention in Las Vegas.

"Life for Paula Coughlin after going public is not a picnic," she said at a fall conference of the Virginia Press Women in Richmond. "I'm doing OK. It was worth it, and I'd do it again in a minute."

Coughlin, a Virginia Beach native, is the Virginia Press Women "Newsmaker of the Year" for 1993. The award is presented annually to a Virginia woman who makes news because of her contribution to society.

When she was told about the award, Coughlin said she found the term newsmaker "distasteful."

"I wasn't and am not still today accepting an award for saving someone's life . . . or doing something I was trained to do," she said. "I was made an example by the misfortune of walking down the wrong hallway."

Coughlin said she never intended to blow any whistles but felt duty-bound to speak out after she was dissatisfied with the Navy's response to her sexual-harassment allegations.

Because of Coughlin's decision to come forward with her story last year, dozens of Tailhook attendees face review by military prosecutors on charges stemming from the 1991 convention.

Her first interview was with ABC. The second was with The Washington Post.

Coughlin said she wanted to "let those men at the Pentagon wake up with a jump start when they opened the front page. I think I was pretty successful with that."

Going public with her story has caused greater awareness of the problem of sexual harassment, Coughlin said. But she invited the media to "press on" with the issue.

"I'm not convinced that taking care of it has happened yet," she said. "It was a very ugly experience. Unfortunately, the ugliness did not stop at the end of the hallway."

But, Coughlin said, "Going public has strengthened my resolve to see this through."

While she has no immediate plans to leave the Navy, Coughlin said she would leave if she found a job she thought was better for her.

"Until then, I'm in the Navy," she said. "And you know what? It makes a lot of men mad."

But that's not a problem, Coughlin said.

"If it makes them angry, it's worth it."