THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 9, 1995 TAG: 9501090050
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KERRY DEROCHI, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 173 lines
The names are part of the lore.
Blue nose.
Shellbacking.
Blanket party.
Tacking on the crow.
All describe military rituals that date back hundreds of years, bizarre rites of passage that were meant to teach sailors a lesson.
Considered a form of hazing, these unofficial ceremonies were condoned by military leaders and rarely led to prosecutions. They often passed without notice.
Until somebody got hurt.
Recent reports that a female recruit may have been beaten at a Navy boot camp have renewed public calls for the military to put an end to all hazing.
The recruit, who was allegedly attacked by three men in a shower at the Orlando, Fla., camp, claimed she was told she had to be taught a lesson before she could order men around. She is now awaiting medical discharge for an equilibrium disorder that may be linked to the beating.
Her case, along with recent assaults aboard the Norfolk-based oilers Merrimack and Monongahela, have focused attention on the age-old practice and raised questions about its prevalence.
In the wake of news reports surrounding both cases, the Navy issued a stern warning to the fleet last month, ordering all flag officers to personally see that their sailors get the word.
Describing hazing as an issue that ``cannot and will not be ignored,'' Chief of Naval Operations Jeremy M. Boorda gave his commanding officers until early January to address the problem.
``I want each and every one of you to take this issue as an urgent action item with a goal of making sure every Navy person for whom you are responsible has the word, understands it, and knows he or she will be dealt with if they participate in hazing,'' Boorda wrote.
The question is whether the sailors will listen.
The message from Boorda is the latest in a long line of salvos from the top brass to try to rid the Navy of hazing. In the past, the admonitions followed bad publicity surrounding particularly brutal incidents.
In 1956, it was a march of Marine recruits through the marsh of Parris Island, S.C., where six were drowned by the incoming tide. In 1986, it was the near-fatal beating of a Marine at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the subject of the 1992 movie ``A Few Good Men.''
One year ago, Navy Secretary John Dalton was forced to go public about hazing after a taped national broadcast of Marines pouring tobacco spit and human waste on fellow servicemen. In a letter to both the Navy and Marines, Dalton urged the commanders to send a ``clear and urgent signal'' to the fleet.
``To me there is no doubt everybody's gotten the message,'' said Duane Bushey, retired master chief of the Navy, who lives in Norfolk. ``It comes down to values. At what level do they see the seriousness of it? How stupid are some individuals going to get?''
The Navy has defined hazing as behavior that causes or has the potential to cause an individual or group to be embarrassed, humiliated or injured.
It can be either verbal or physical. It can be part of an initiation ceremony or retribution for failing to complete a task.
It can be as simple as being forced to do extra ``PT'' in temperatures that top 90 degrees.
Lorna Papke-Dupouy, a senior drill instructor at Parris Island from 1983 to 1985, described hazing as an extension of the fervor that surrounded boot camp training. Platoon leaders, trying to excel in the high-pressure environment, sometimes lost control.
Sometimes, she said, it was the extra physical training. Sometimes, the privates got hit.
``Many, many people there really do believe they are John Wayne, that whole mentality that goes with it,'' said Papke-Dupouy, a former Marine staff sergeant. ``These are good people; they're not bad.
``It's just they are there so many hours. They're young and they have so much power that it goes to their heads.''
In the past, efforts to end the rituals by the Navy and the other service branches have been thwarted, in part, by the very nature of military service.
Hazing is as much a tradition as breaking a champagne bottle on the hull of a new vessel or playing taps at a funeral.
Initiation ceremonies for chief petty officers have been jealously guarded as a proud and needed rite of passage. Recent criticism of the ceremonies, which have involved chiefs dressed in women's clothing, sparked a bumper sticker campaign in retaliation, with the slogan, ``Initiated and Proud.''
``The Navy is such a traditional society,'' said D.J. Hansen, who handled a dozen hazing cases during his seven years as a Navy lawyer. ``There's been a resistance to eliminate Navy traditions, and hazing is a part of Navy tradition.''
Though the frequency of hazing is difficult to measure, most Navy officials believe it is decreasing. Once considered a routine practice at boot camps and on ships, hazing is no longer viewed in the service's culture as a necessary ritual.
``I think from my travels around the Atlantic fleet, I have seen a decline,'' said Mike Baker, force master chief of the Atlantic Fleet Air Forces. ``I have seen the senior enlisted leadership step forward and say, `You know we're right; we're not going to tolerate it.' ''
Part of the difficulty in tracking hazing is that most of the incidents are seen as little more than harmless pranks. Few hazing cases result in physical injury and, therefore, rarely come to light. Those that are brought forward tend to be treated at an administrative level and not taken to trial by a court martial.
Hansen and other lawyers who handled hazing cases said the incidents are usually viewed as mere assaults. There is rarely criminal intent, and few victims come forward. Those victims who are identified by investigators routinely do not want their shipmates prosecuted.
``Nobody said, overtly, go ahead and do it,'' said Donald Marcari, a former Navy lawyer. ``But everybody knew what was going on. It was part of Navy life. Like being part of a fraternity.
``As people started getting hurt, even killed, the message came down.''
Marcari, who defended one of the 10 Marines accused of performing the ``Code Red'' assault in the Guantanamo Bay beating, said that in his career he has handled the cases of 15 Marines brought up on charges related to hazing incidents. Only one was taken to court martial. The others appeared before their commanding officers in nonjudicial disciplinary hearings.
``There was never an intent to harm the individual permanently,'' Marcari said. ``It was just to get their attention. It was more to have fun, sort of a rite of passage. Maybe that's why it wasn't treated criminally.
``It was always just an acceptable way of life.''
But times have changed.
Scandals such as the 1990 chaining of a woman midshipman to a urinal at the U.S. Naval Academy and the 1991 Tailhook convention, when aviators were accused of groping dozens of women, have forced the Navy to review how its sailors treat each other.
``Given the political winds and the way the culture is starting to shift, it's getting more attention,'' Hansen said. ``Commanders are taking a harder look at how they ought to handle it.''
But few believe the Navy, or any of the other service branches, will be able to get rid of hazing altogether.
The incident involving the female recruit in Orlando took place in August 1992, at the height of the Navy crackdown on the mistreatment of its female sailors.
The recruit was allegedly ordered into the shower, where she was kicked and beaten with broom handles, according to a Navy memorandum on the incident.
The attack is being investigated by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in Norfolk. It is being treated as a criminal assault.
Though the incident has not been specifically linked to hazing, Navy officials close to the investigation acknowledged the attack may have been part of a boot camp ritual. But they added that the recruit's gender - and her role in one of the Navy's first co-ed classes - likely played a role in the attack.
Three weeks after word of the recruit's beating first surfaced, the Navy announced it had disciplined 18 sailors on the two Norfolk-based oilers for unrelated hazing assaults. The punishments ranged from restriction to forfeiture of pay and rate reductions. Though details of the assaults were not released, the attacks sent one victim to a hospital for four days with deep leg bruises. A second victim required one day's bed rest for the injuries.
Taken together, the incidents indicated to the Navy leadership that more needed to be done to solve the hazing problem.
``You've got to get it down to the lowest junior sailor on the waterfront down there,'' said Baker, force master chief of the Atlantic Fleet Air Forces. ``If you do have an incident that comes to light, as they have recently, then you take swift corrective action to take care of the problem.
``You have to make sure the action sends the right message out.'' ILLUSTRATION: HAZING TRADITIONS
Definitions vary with time and place, but here are some widely known
Navy hazing traditions.
BLUE NOSE - Given to sailors when they enter the Arctic Circle for
the first time. Their noses are painted blue and they are made to
chug a quart of beer.
SHELLBACKING - Given to sailors when they cross the Equator for the
first time. They are made to crawl on their hands and knees while
shipmates paddle them.
BLANKET PARTY - Used for retribution against someone who has angered
a group of colleagues. The person is usually gagged, wrapped in a
blanket and beaten.
TACKING ON THE CROW - Sailors who make petty officer are hit
repeatedly on the arm.
KEYWORDS: HAZING U.S. NAVY ASSAULT by CNB