Navy Probes New Tailhook Allegations
Aug. 25 -- The Navy said today it is investigating charges that service members attending the naval aviators Tailhook convention last week made “inappropriate physical contact” with a civilian woman.
A civilian husband and wife staying at the same hotel where the convention was held allege they were harassed. In a brief written statement, the Navy said the Inspector General’s office is looking into allegations the woman was inappropriately touched by naval officers in a crowded hallway.
The case recalls the infamous Tailhook Association 1991 convention, which created a sexual assault scandal that forced the resignation of the Navy’s civilian chief and focusedattention on sexual harassment throughout the military. The Navycut its ties to the group after that incident, which involved at least 90 indecent assaults.
But just this year, the Navy restored full ties to the association,and the Aug. 17-20 convention at the Nugget Hotel in Sparks, Nev., was thefirst time attendance by Navy and Marine Corps aviators at the convention was officiallysanctioned since 1991.
Few Details Disclosed
The Navy’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Steve Pietropaoli, saidit would not release the name of the individual who lodgedthe complaint on a telephone hot line that had been set up afterthe 1991 incident.
Pietropaoli said the man reported that he and his wife were in acrowded hallway in the hotel and that when he asked people —apparently service members attending the convention — to make roomfor the couple to pass, “inappropriate comments” were made to himand his wife.
The man also said someone in the group madeinappropriate physical contact with his wife, although Pietropaoliwas not more specific.
Sparks, Nev. Police Sgt. Sherman Box said his department received noreports from or calls to the Nugget in connection with Tailhook.
Navy spokesman Cmdr. Greg Smith said the man who lodged thecomplaint said a senior Navy officer apologized to him in person,but the man considered it to be “not sincere.” The senior Navyofficer, who was not identified by name, was at the hotel but notpresent during the confrontation, Smith said.
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