
DATE: Sunday, April 27, 1997                TAG: 9704240565

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J2   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Book Review

SOURCE: BY KATE MELHUISH 

                                            LENGTH:   99 lines

TAILHOOK THOROUGH SUMMARY OF EVENTS, FROM ACCUSATIONS THROUGH TRIAL, PUTS SCANDAL IN SHARP FOCUS

THE MOTHER OF ALL HOOKS

The Story of the U.S. Navy's Tailhook Scandal

WILLIAM H. McMICHAEL

Transaction Publishers. 377 pp. $32.95.

Taking on this book means a lot of commitment on the reader's part.

First is the price, a hefty chunk of change even in an era of soaring hardcover book costs.

Then there's the title, The Mother of All Hooks, which sounds bizarre until you remember the timing of that last Tailhook convention in Las Vegas. September 1991 was barely half a year after Desert Storm put the lid on Saddam Hussein's boast about the ``Mother of all Battles.''

Finally, there's the density of the volume itself, loaded with material from sworn testimony, interviews and occasional hearsay, all carefully documented via endnotes.

So it comes as a bit of a surprise to find the book a genuinely compelling read, well worth the up-front effort.

William H. McMichael, a reporter with the Daily Press in Newport News, made an enormous commitment in tackling this subject. McMichael spent months covering the Tailhook court proceedings in Norfolk. He came to know the character of the people involved: the accused, the prosecution and defense teams, the military panels sitting in judgment, even the investigators and the many witnesses called to testify.

More than most observers of the Tailhook sequence, McMichael believed the long, ugly episode showed worrying gaps in the investigation. He also noted serious flaws in the legal process against both Navy and Marine aviators. After three years of research and writing, McMichael presents an eye-opening, convincing summary of events. He also makes some pretty astute assessments of, arguably, the most sordid episode of modern naval history.

The book's title comes from an October 1991 letter from the president of the Tailhook Association to association members: ``Without a doubt, it was the biggest and most successful Tailhook we have ever had. We said it would be the `Mother of all Hooks,' and it was.''

The letter writer got it half right, anyway. Soon afterward, this professional military association became linked in the public mind with an annual venue for heavy drinking, hard partying and sexual hijinks.

McMichael doesn't downplay that image. He re-creates from transcripts, notes and interviews the scene on the Las Vegas Hilton's third floor during the convention. No matter how you feel about Tailhook, there's no denying that events up in that hallway and the party suites were unsavory at best. McMichael relates the party through several pairs of eyes, aptly conveying the confusion and uncertainty inherent in a very large, very drunk crowd.

This is only part of the big picture, though, and the incidents of those few September days - or, more accurately, nights - are as familiar to some as O.J.'s drive in the white Bronco. The real meat of McMichael's story is how those incidents came to be thrust on the American public: the media coverage of the accusers, the investigations by the Navy's and Defense Department's inspectors general, and the trial.

Even more illuminating is the way McMichael describes the planning and strategies of both the prosecution and defense teams. The book unfolds like the best kind of detective fiction, weaving a credible picture of an almost incredible scandal. The difference between this and an Erle Stanley Gardner novel is simple: The real-life people tagged to uncover the truth and ensure justice to all involved - on both sides - didn't measure up to Perry Mason and Paul Drake.

This is an absorbing read, with two caveats. One, McMichael cites many, many people by name, and it's sometimes hard to keep all of the players straight, particularly as the cast changes with the Judge Advocate General (JAG) officers representing each side of the case. The extensive endnotes and index are essential to keep up with the sequence of events.

Two, inconsistent proofreading shows up frequently in the book, almost as though the manuscript had been rushed into print. This seems odd with a work in progress over several years, and looks more like the publisher's problem than the author's. McMichael's thoughtful reporting and assessment come through loud and clear despite these minimal distractions.

McMichael makes some pointed observations on the behavior of certain individuals - and mentions names, but his perspective is not one of moral outrage. He writes from a very deep sense that the military justice system went seriously awry at each step of the investigation and subsequent legal proceedings. Finally, after years of angry and heated debate, The Mother of All Hooks puts the Tailhook scandal into considerably sharper focus. MEMO: Kate Melhuish is a commander in the Naval Reserve. She lives and

works in Norfolk. ILLUSTRATION: Photos

Lt. Paula Coughlin's tales on sexual assault at an aviators'

convention prompted examination of the Navy's attitudes toward

women.

Graphic

BOOK SIGNING

William H. McMichael will sign copies of ``The Mother of all Hooks:

The Story of the U.S. Navy's Tailhook Scandal'' May 10, 1 p.m., at

B. Dalton Booksellers, Lynnhaven Mall, Virginia Beach. Call

463-2536.