THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 18, 1997 TAG: 9701180005
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 27 lines
In reply to Lt. Cmdr. P. R. Hurni's Jan. 9 letter: I agree that Tailhook should not be brought up every time there is a military tragedy, but I disagree that it was no wilder than a ``good Irish wedding reception.''
Since I was raised in an Irish-American home, in the Northeast, I have attended many good Irish wedding receptions. They were family occasions of great joy with singing, dancing, good food and drink and much laughter. Tailhook, with its documented incidents of a gauntlet of drunken aviators groping females, indecent exposure, hired displays of sex acts and thousands of dollars' worth of damage to a Las Vegas hotel makes no comparison. The behavior of many at Tailhook dishonored the uniforms of the Navy personnel who have served honorably.
We should all be grateful that Paula Coughlin had the courage to blow the whistle. It gave the Navy time to work on the problem before some ``prosecutable crime in the civilian sense'' occurred. Tailhook will cease to be news when all of the problems of sexual harassment, in the Navy, have been corrected.
A. M. KENNEDY
Norfolk, Jan. 13, 1997