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

DATE: Thursday, July 14, 1994                TAG: 9407140686
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                         LENGTH: Medium:   83 lines

NAVY HEAD DENIES HE TRIED TO DUCK HARASSMENT HEARING BOORDA DEFENDED HIS HANDLING OF THE CASE AND HIS SUPPORT FOR HIS VICE CHIEF.

The Navy's top officer tried Wednesday to extricate himself from a thorny dispute over the service's handling of yet another sexual harassment controversy and his own loyalty to a popular deputy.

Adm. J.M. ``Mike'' Boorda, chief of naval operations, sharply denied suggestions that he tried to duck a public airing of harassment allegations made by Lt. j.g. Rebecca Hansen. The Navy is in the process of discharging Hansen, an aspiring helicopter pilot, after she rejected urgings that she pursue another career path.

Boorda also defended Adm. Stanley R. Arthur, his vice chief, who at least one senator had suggested mishandled the Hansen case.

Some retired naval officers and civilian critics had accused Boorda of sacrificing Arthur's career last month after the Pentagon withdrew his proposed transfer to become commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific. The flap is the first public controversy over Boorda's leadership since he took charge of the Navy at the end of April.

Sen. Dave Durenberger, R-Minn., was holding up Arthur's transfer, which requires Senate confirmation, because of what he said was the Navy's refusal to fully answer questions about the Hansen case. Arthur's withdrawal broke the stalemate and, it appeared, preempted Durenberger's attempt to get a full airing of the Hansen case.

But the Navy said June 24 that Arthur and Boorda had agreed that Arthur should withdraw his nomination rather than let the Pacific post go unfilled during what promised to be protracted hearings. Pentagon spokesmen said the Pacific job is particularly critical now because of the ongoing dispute over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

``Stan Arthur is an officer of integrity . . . who chose to take this selfless action . . . in the interests of more rapidly filling a critical leadership position,'' Boorda wrote Wednesday in a letter released by the Navy. ``Those who postulate other reasons for the withdrawal are simply wrong.''

Boorda said he agrees with Arthur and Navy investigators who found that Hansen was washed out of a pilot training program last year because of poor performance and not, as she alleges, in retaliation for her earlier complaints of harassment by a superior officer.

``Lt. j.g. Hansen was the victim of sexual harassment,'' Boorda acknowledged. ``It was investigated and punished.'' He said the Navy remains determined to root out all sexual harassment; the subject has been the Navy's most persistent and embarrassing public relations problem since the 1991 Tailhook scandal.

Boorda said that because Hansen had been victimized, he and others in the Navy were justified in making extra efforts to keep her in the service after she failed at helicopter training. Those efforts, including an offer to Hansen to join Boorda's personal staff in Washington, had led to charges that Boorda was going too far to accommodate the young officer.

At one point, Hansen appeared ready to accept the offer. But she and the Navy broke off discussions after she made other demands, including that the service pay for her law school tuition and training as a commercial pilot.

Boorda's unusual self-defense came in a letter to Virginia Sen. John W. Warner, a Republican and former secretary of the Navy. Warner on Tuesday urged Boorda to address the growing controversy after Durenberger circulated a letter complaining again that the Navy had failed to answer his legitimate questions about the Hansen case.

Boorda said the Navy had answered every question raised by Durenberger, providing ``all available information on the Hansen case permitted by law.'' He added that ``this is not a case that was ignored by the Navy nor is it a case where there was a cover-up.''

Both Warner and Durenberger were unavailable for comment Wednesday on Boorda's letter. But a spokesman for Warner said her boss believes the nomination of Vice Adm. R.C. Macke, the Pentagon's replacement selection for the Pacific job, should not be further delayed. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Adm. J.M. ``Mike'' Boorda denied suggestions that he tried to dodge

hearings on harassment allegations made by Lt. j.g. Rebecca Hansen

by withdrawing the nomination of Adm. Stanley R. Arthur to become

commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific.

KEYWORDS: U.S. NAVY SEXUAL HARASSMENT HEARING

by CNB