Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 19, 1995 TAG: 9503200054
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK DORSEY LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
With the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower returning to Norfolk, there are signs of rough sailing during its historic six-month cruise: Crew members are being removed on the grounds of pregnancy and romance.
The Eisenhower last year became the Navy's first carrier with women as permanent crew members; 415 now serve among the 4,967 people aboard.
Some signs of the difficult adjustment:
A man and a woman were taken off the ship for having sex on board some time during the last two days, the Navy acknowledged. The encounter was discovered because the man videotaped it and showed it to others.
Fourteen women in the crew have become pregnant since the cruise began in October and were sent home, other sources said.
An Eisenhower crew member who was dismissed from the Navy on Wednesday said she was sentenced to three days on bread and water in a Navy brig because she fell in love with another crew member, in violation of the ship's no-dating policy. She also claims discrimination: The man, now her fiance, has not been punished.
There are indications from other crew members that the ship's no-dating policy has gotten other couples in trouble, resulting in added duty, demotions and fines.
Such administrative actions are usually taken by the ship's captain at a nonjudicial hearing called a captain's mast. He can order added duty, confinement to the ship's brig, forfeiture of pay, demotion, or all four.
``But the one thing here is that the Navy will not tolerate any sexual misconduct,'' said Cmdr. Kevin Wensing, a spokesman for the Atlantic Fleet Naval Air Force, headquartered in Norfolk.
In the videotape, a man and woman - both married to other people - had consensual sex in an isolated space aboard the ship.
A third individual, a chief warrant officer, watched the video but failed to take proper action by reporting it. He was held accountable for failure to take proper action once he learned of the incident, Wensing said.
The misconduct was discovered and reported when an enlisted member - a first class petty officer - saw a portion of the video, recognized it as inappropriate and reported it, said Wensing.
The Eisenhower's commanding officer, Capt. Mark Gemmill, ordered the young woman, a seaman recruit, and the man, a seaman, removed from the ship after convicting them of adultery and willfully disobeying a lawful order.
He also assigned them to 45 days of confinement, 45 days of added duty, reduced them to the lowest rank and fined each a total of $854. The action was taken within hours of the command learning about the incident, Wensing said.
In disclosing the number of pregnancies, a Navy official said 38 crew members on the Eisenhower have reported they were pregnant since the crew first went aboard in Norfolk last April.
Of those, 24 became pregnant before the ship left for its Mediterranean cruise and the remaining 14 reported their pregnancies after the cruise began in October. By comparison, 17 women were reassigned for other medical reasons and eight more for non-medical reasons, either disciplinary or administrative.
There have been 171 men reassigned for medical reasons since April and 221 reassigned for non-medical reasons.
In the case of the woman sentenced to the brig, Navy officials denied she was disciplined for dating. They said her offense was repeatedly reporting for work late. She blamed the tardiness on anemia but said the official charge masks the real reason behind her dismissal.
A 19-year-old seaman recruit, the woman was discharged under ``less than honorable'' conditions Wednesday. She asked that she not be identified, but the Navy confirmed portions of her story.
The sailor said the government spent a considerable sum to punish her, buying her a vacation as it tried to get her from the Eisenhower to a Navy brig in Rota, Spain.
The brig aboard the Eisenhower cannot house women because it does not provide separate spaces for men and women, the Navy acknowledged.
She said other women have been disciplined for violating the no-dating rules, resulting in added duty and, in some cases, demotion. Some have been found with their boyfriends kissing in closets and other hideaways aboard ship, she said.
All of her infractions stemmed from violations of the Eisenhower's no-dating policy, she said. That policy, announced by the ship more than a year ago, prohibits any crew members from dating one another, regardless of rank or chain of command.
by CNB