
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 28, 1994                    TAG: 9406280337 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A11    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940628                                 LENGTH: WASHINGTON

WOMAN WHO WAS HARASSED REJECTS NAVY JOB OFFERS \

{LEAD} A Navy lieutenant who said she was flunked out of helicopter flight school last year in retaliation for her earlier claims of sexual harassment has rejected offers to pursue other careers in the service and will be discharged, a Navy official said Mon-day.

Lt. Rebecca Hansen will be sent a notice today of her pending dismissal from the service, said the official, who spoke on the condition his name not be used.

{REST} ``Everybody thinks she'd make a fine young officer,'' the official added. But he said the Navy could not accept Hansen's request that she be reinstated to flight training or given other benefits, including a law school education and training as a commercial pilot, to keep her in uniform.

Hansen, assigned to Great Lakes Naval Station in Illinois, could not be reached for comment.

In recent weeks, Hansen has met with a variety of senior Navy leaders, including - on Friday - Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jeremy M. Boorda, to discuss her options. Secretary of the Navy John H. Dalton sent Hansen a letter last month after his own meeting with her offering to transfer her into any of a variety of other naval communities.

Boorda repeated that offer on Friday, the Navy official said, but Hansen rejected it on Monday.

The Navy and Hansen agree that she was harassed by a flight instructor in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1992; the teacher was reprimanded and subsequently left the service. But after a series of investigations, the Navy rejected Hansen's claim that other instructors failed her in helicopter training in retaliation for the harassment complaint.

Her case last week derailed the nomination of the Navy's second-highest ranking admiral, Stanley R. Arthur, to take command of all American forces in the Pacific. The Pentagon withdrew Arthur's name on Friday, saying it did not want to leave the Pacific job vacant during what promised to be a protracted debate over his nomination.

Arthur's transfer had been held up by questions from Minnesota Sen. Dave Durenberger over Arthur's response to Hansen's case. A spokeswoman for Durenberger said Monday the Republican lawmaker will continue pressing for Senate Armed Services committee hearings on the military's response to sexual harassment.

Durenberger also continues to seek a General Accounting Office investigation of alleged reprisals against women who bring harassment charges.

Arthur, 58, concluded after investigations by the Navy and Department of Defense inspector generals that Hansen had not been subjected to any reprisals and failed the helicopter school because of substandard performance.

Hansen, with support from Durenberger, argues that the Navy inspector general ignored evidence favorable to her case.

This isn't the first time Arthur has been criticized for his response to a sexual harassment allegation. Earlier this year, his recommendation that Lt. Paula Coughlin, the most prominent victim of sexual assaults in the 1991 Tailhook scandal, be forced to repay a $18,000 bonus was overruled by Dalton.

{KEYWORDS} WOMEN IN THE MILITARY

by CNB