THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 10, 1996 TAG: 9604100343
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
An April 19 hearing has been set on the Navy's request for dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Cmdr. Robert E. Stumpf, a Virginia Beach-based aviator who contends service Secretary John H. Dalton illegally blocked his promotion to captain last year.
Stumpf, a former commander of the Navy's famed Blue Angels squadron of precision fliers, was nominated for promotion and confirmed by the Senate in 1994. But before his formal appointment, the Navy discovered it had failed to inform the Senate of allegations against Stumpf stemming from his attendance at the 1991 Tailhook Association convention in Las Vegas.
Stumpf was cleared by the Navy of any wrongdoing at Tailhook, where drunken naval aviators assaulted dozens of Navy and civilian women. But after reviewing his record, the Senate Armed Services Committee withdrew its support, and Dalton canceled his promotion.
Navy lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the case last week in U.S. District Court. They contend that Stumpf has not carried his complaint through the proper appeal channels within the service and that in any case the court has no authority to order the airman's advancement.
``The president, or the secretary acting for him, could have withdrawn Cmdr. Stumpf's name from the (promotion) list for any reason - including to allow the Senate to conduct its inquiry - or for no reason at all,'' the Navy asserted in a brief accompanying its motion.
The Navy says that before filing any suit, Stumpf should be required to petition the Board for Correction of Naval Records, a group appointed by the secretary to advise him on alleged mistakes or omissions in personnel files.
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT U.S. NAVY PROMOTION by CNB