THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 11, 1996 TAG: 9611110042
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BRADLEY GRAHAM, THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 108 lines
Army leaders chose to go public last week with news of an expanding investigation into sexual misconduct at a main training facility out of concern that word of the probe would leak and the Army might face accusations of cover-up, said Gen. Dennis Reimer, the service's chief of staff.
The announcement has turned a spotlight on an extensive inquiry at Aberdeen Proving Ground's Ordnance Center in Maryland. The investigation, though roughly half-complete, already has exposed an alarming degree of sexual misconduct there and raised disturbing questions about the extent of such behavior elsewhere in the Army.
Reimer said Sunday he doubts flagrant sexual violations - like the rapes charged against two Aberdeen supervisors - are widespread in the service. But he and other Army leaders have acknowledged needing to reassure themselves through a series of fresh reviews that sexual assault and harassment in the ranks are not worse than they had assumed.
``I believe we don't have a bigger problem,'' Reimer said. ``But I was surprised by Aberdeen.''
Four drill instructors and a captain at Aberdeen have been charged, three with criminal charges and two on administrative counts. They and 15 others have been suspended.
The five men facing charges, which range from rape to sending improper love letters to the trainees, were accused of harassing at least a dozen women in their first weeks of training. The average age of the women was 21.
There were indications Sunday that Aberdeen may not be the only major Army training center with a sexual-misconduct problem. Officials reported that since September, when the first complaint emerged at Aberdeen, criminal investigators also have been pursuing separate allegations ranging from fraternization to rape against several supervisors at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.
No charges have yet been filed in the Fort Leonard Wood cases, the officials said.
Aware for two months of the mounting allegations against supervisors at Aberdeen, Reimer said he recently started getting ``antsy'' that the Army might be accused of trying to hush up the investigation. Earlier this month, he raised the question of when to disclose the probe in a meeting with the head of the Army's training command, Gen. William W. Hartzog.
``I've been bothered by Aberdeen as much as anything that's come up since I took over as chief'' last year, Reimer said. ``So I pushed Gen. Hartzog. I told him the call was his to make, but I also told him I didn't want to wait too long. My concern was, if it leaked, people would accuse us of having kept it under cover.''
Last week, Hartzog told Reimer it was all right with him to lift the lid, and Army Secretary Togo West approved the move. Rather than attempt a low-key news release, the Army orchestrated a high-profile, multi-forum announcement on Thursday, with remarks by West and appearances by Reimer and Hartzog as well as Aberdeen's commander, Maj. Gen. Robert D. Shadley.
The Army blitz gave service leaders the opportunity at the outset to register their anger and disapproval. They also asserted their determination to examine the extent of the problem not only at the training facility but also servicewide.
Word of the investigation has sent waves of reporters to the Aberdeen base for interviews. Such media attention had worried Army lawyers who would have preferred to conduct their own questioning of potential witnesses in a less-charged atmosphere.
But top Army officials were mindful that hesitation and inattention on the part of senior Navy officials compounded the 1991 Tailhook scandal, in which scores of aviators at a convention in Las Vegas assaulted dozens of women. The Army has appeared intent on avoiding the same management mistakes.
``My basic lesson learned from Tailhook,'' Reimer said, ``is to try to make the investigative process as open as possible. We must be careful to protect the rights of the individuals involved, but we also must get on with the process, get it right and ensure justice is done.''
In some ways, Reimer added, publicity about the investigation has facilitated the search for additional perpetrators and victims. As an example, he cited the toll-free hot line set up to field complaints of sexual improprieties against Army personnel nationwide. (The number is 1-800-903-4241.)
As of Sunday afternoon, the Army had received 1,697 hot-line calls, which officials said had yielded about 100 complaints deemed credible enough by criminal investigators to pursue. About half involve Aberdeen supervisors and fellow soldiers; the rest relate to military facilities elsewhere.
About 80 percent of the callers have expressed opinions praising or criticizing the Army or have asked operators to ``please give our thoughts and prayers to the recruits'' at the school, spokeswoman Rachel McDonald said.
There were also new details that some of the instructors threatened the recruits they allegedly sexually assaulted.
According to documents detailing the charges released late Saturday, one of the defendants, Staff Sgt. Delmar Simpson, threatened to kill women if they told anyone he was having sex with them. He is accused of jerking one woman's head back by her hair after threatening to knock out her teeth.
Another defendant, Capt. Derrick Robertson, is accused of trying to discharge a female soldier after sexually assaulting her, the documents said. He is charged with telling the woman to lie about their sexual relationship, forcing her to engage in sodomy and engaging in an improper sexual relationship with the soldier.
Sgt. Nathanael Beach is charged with defying orders to stay away from trainees while his conduct was being investigated, the documents said.
Maj. Susan Gibson, deputy staff judge advocate at the post, refused to comment on whether any of the defendants tried to carry out the alleged threats. MEMO: The Associated Press and The Boston Globe contributed to this
report.
KEYWORDS: SEXUAL MISCONDUCT SEX SCANDAL ARMY SEXUAL
HARASSMENT by CNB