THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 20, 1996 TAG: 9604200329
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
A federal judge dismissed embattled Navy Cmdr. Robert E. Stumpf's bid for a court-ordered promotion to captain Friday, saying he lacks the power to overrule the president and the secretary of the Navy on such appointments.
Military promotions ``are just not the court's business,'' U.S. District Judge Albert V. Bryan Jr. said in dismissing a suit brought by Stumpf last month.
Stumpf is a Virginia Beach-based pilot whose once-promising career has been derailed by allegations stemming from his presence at the notorious 1991 Tailhook Association convention of naval aviators. He said he was disappointed in the ruling and undecided about whether to appeal it or pursue a promotion through other avenues inside the Navy.
Retirement from the service also is a possibility, he conceded.
Judge Bryan clearly had little difficulty with the legal issues raised by the case, ruling from the bench after hearing brief arguments from Justice Department lawyer Andrea Newmark and Charles Gittins, Stumpf's lawyer.
Gittins urged Bryan to let the case go to trial, saying it is unclear whether the Navy followed proper procedures in denying Stumpf's advancement. The lawyer insisted that Stumpf was not asking Bryan to promote him; Gittins said Stumpf believed the Navy would do that if the court found flaws in the Navy's process.
But Newmark argued that ``every `i' was dotted and every `t' was crossed'' by the Navy as the promotion was processed. And even if procedures were violated, she suggested, the Constitution and a long series of court decisions establish the right of the president and secretary to settle all questions about promotions.
Stumpf has been trying for almost two years to secure his promotion. A former commander of the Blue Angels, the Navy's team of precision fliers, he is among the service's most decorated pilots.
Stumpf was nominated for captain and confirmed by the Senate in May 1994. But before his appointment was finalized the Navy discovered that it had failed to inform the Senate Armed Services Committee of his attendance at Tailhook.
A Navy board of inquiry had cleared Stumpf of any misconduct at Tailhook, where dozens of Navy and civilian women were sexually assaulted by drunken aviators. Stumpf was present during a striptease act in a Tailhook hotel suite, the board said, but had departed by the time the stripper engaged in a public sex act with a naval aviator.
After conducting its own confidential probe, however, the committee informed Navy Secretary John H. Dalton last fall that it would not have recommended Stumpf's promotion had it known of his activities at the convention. Dalton, despite statements of support for Stumpf, then removed the flier's name from the promotion list.
Stumpf waged an unusual public campaign to change the committee's decision, becoming something of a cause celebre to conservative activists and Navy retirees around the country. But after a pair of private meetings in mid-March, the committee declined to reverse its stand, and Stumpf went to court.
Since the suit was filed, a new Navy promotion board reportedly has again recommended that Stumpf be advanced to captain. A new promotion list that includes Stumpf is said to have been forwarded by the Navy to the Defense Department.
Stumpf said Friday he hopes the attention his case has attracted will influence the committee to end the ``Tailhook certification'' process under which it gives special screening to promotion candidates who attended the convention.
Virginia Sen. John W. Warner, a committee member, argued that ``we've got to move on, beyond Tailhook'' in reviewing officers for promotion and said he would vote for Stumpf should the aviator's name come before the Senate again. ILLUSTRATION: Cmdr. Robert E. Stumpf
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT TAILHOOK PROMOTION by CNB