ROANOKE TIMES

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

DATE: TUESDAY, November 30, 1993                   TAG: 9311300064
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Medium


KELSO SAYS HE DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT TAILHOOK

The Navy's highest-ranking uniformed officer said under oath Monday he never saw any misconduct at the 1991 Tailhook aviators' convention and was unaware until months later that women were abused there.

"I didn't know of anything that happened at Tailhook," Adm. Frank Kelso testified at a military court hearing for two officers charged in the scandal.

He told military judge William T. Vest Jr. he was never on the third floor of the Las Vegas Hilton on Saturday, Sept. 7, 1991, when 83 women have said they were sexually assaulted.

Former Navy Secretary Lawrence Garrett testified later that he was on the third floor that night and didn't see Kelso or any wrongdoing.

Kelso and Garrett testified in the cases of Cmdrs. Thomas Miller and Gregory Tritt. The pair face court-martial for the Tailhook scandal unless Vest agrees to drop charges against them.

Defense lawyers say the charges should be thrown out because Kelso appointed the admiral overseeing the Tailhook cases and because Kelso has a stake in the prosecutions because his location during the incidents is in dispute.

Kelso said he first heard of the sexual misconduct allegations when Lt. Paula Coughlin came forward two months after the September 1991 gathering of naval fliers to say she was a victim of abuse.

Kelso, who is chief of naval operations, is the Navy's highest-ranking admiral and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

He said that during the raucous third-floor party, he was on the hotel's main floor, attending a speech by then-Navy Secretary Garrett. Afterward, he said, he went into the hotel's casino to gamble.



 by CNB