THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 10, 1996 TAG: 9601100441
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: My Turn
SOURCE: Jack Dorsey
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
How in the world can Cmdr. Robert E. Stumpf be ``tried'' again for the 4-year-old Tailhook scandal?
That's exactly what Navy Secretary John Dalton did Dec. 28 in denying Stumpf's promotion to captain.
The aviator had been working at Oceana in preparation for a deployment this month to the Mediterranean Sea. He'd been in the pipeline for the past year to become the deputy air wing commander aboard the carrier George Washington, a step that normally leads to command.
Without his promotion, that job must go to someone else.
Stumpf, a former commander of the Blue Angels, was wounded by the Tailhook episode that began in 1991. But not mortally. The legal system did its job and cleared him - three times.
Now Stumpf's been shot down in flames, this time by the legislative system, which didn't want to feel heat from the Tailhook aftermath. So it put the ball back in the executive system's lap, more precisely, Dalton's.
This mess began because the 43-year-old pilot went to the Los Vegas Tailhook convention to receive an award for his strike-fighter squadron's combat performance during the Persian Gulf War. A number of horrible things took place there that involved sexual assaults on women, drunkenness and totally unacceptable behavior on the part of a host of aviators.
Stumpf didn't participate.
On at least three occasions the Navy sought to discipline him. An initial investigation found no evidence to punish him by court-martial or admiral's mast. A second resulted in a letter of censure to him. But the recommendation was turned down while the case was reinvestigated.
In October 1993, another panel recommended that Stumpf be cleared of all wrongdoing in the matter.That should have been the end of it.
Stumpf was actually confirmed to the rank of captain by the full Senate on May 24, 1994.
But, according to Charles W. Gittins, Stumpf's civilian lawyer, staff members of the Senate Armed Services Committee took it upon themselves to reinvestigate Stumpf's case, delaying the promotion by more than a year.
Meanwhile, Dalton went on record as personally supporting Stumpf's promotion. Dalton had taken the unusual step of interviewing Stumpf to satisfy himself.
But then, on Oct. 25, 1995, the Senate committee voted during a closed-door, nonquorum, 8-2 vote. to withdraw its support for Stumpf. Apparently, they didn't want the Tailhook controversy to seep into their chambers anymore.
Dalton received a letter from committee Chairman Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., and ranking minority member Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., strongly suggesting he take steps to remove Stumpf's name from the promotion list.
But they also gave Dalton an out, saying it really was an ``executive'' decision, not a legislative one and he could do what he liked.
Dalton acquiesced. Stumpf's career was effectively torpedoed.
Gittins, in a Dec. 20 letter to Defense Secretary William J. Perry, pleaded for Perry not to accede to Dalton's action:
``Cmdr. Stumpf . . . did nothing wrong. He committed no misconduct; he told no lies; he did nothing for which he should be punished.''
``You send a message to the Navy by your decision on Cmdr. Stumpf's case. You must decide whether that message is one that is true to the Constitutional and moral principles of due process, integrity and leadership, or one that trumpets that political expedience, weakness and cowardice are the coin of the realm in the E-ring of the Pentagon.''
This case is headed into federal court. by CNB