Navy Probes New Tailhook Allegations

Aug. 25, 2000 -- 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.

Smith said the circumstances of the apology, made the day afterthe alleged incident, will be part of the inspector general’sinvestigation.

Tailhook President Surprised

Lonnie McClung, a retired Navy captain and president of theTailhook Association, said in a telephone interview today hisorganization was surprised to hear about the complaint.

“As far as we knew the guys were fairly well behaved,” hesaid. “This taints it a little bit.”

McClung said he had no information to confirm the allegation,which he said was made on Tuesday. He said there were about 1,200military members among the 2,000 convention attendees and thathotel officials told him there were only two noise complaintsduring the four-day convention, both on Aug. 18.

“The hotel told us our behavior was exemplary,” he said.

Anne McMillin, spokeswoman for the Fallon Naval Air Station,Nev., said today she attended last week’s convention and hadnot heard of an incident.

“I did not see anything inappropriate and did not experienceanything inappropriate,” she said.

Ties Restored This YearSen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, took a different view. She saidtoday that if the allegation is proven true the Navy shouldwithdraw formal recognition of the Tailhook Association, which shesaid would have been shown to exhibit a “chronic disregard forhuman dignity.”

The Navy restored ties to the group in January after sending several senior representatives to last year’s Tailhook convention as part of a review.

The Navy severed relations with the group in October 1991 after word spread about drunken debauchery at the Las Vegas convention a month earlier. Aviators attending the convention groped female officers during the three-day conference at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel.

The Defense Department inspector general implicated 117 officers in various offenses, ranging from sexual assault to indecent exposure, and faulted Navy leaders for failing to stop the behavior.

The episode triggered the resignation of Navy Secretary H. Lawrence Garrett and the early retirement of Adm. Frank B. Kelso, then chief of naval operations. It also led to lawsuits, multiple investigations and changes in the Navy — including more awareness of sexual harassment and an opening of more aviation opportunities for women.

The Tailhook Association is named for the hook on an aircraft that snags an arresting cable on the landing deck of an aircraft carrier. As of last year, the group claimed about 10,000 members, down from a 1991 peak of about 16,000.Besides its annual conventions, which include professional seminars, the group sponsors college scholarships for children of former naval aviators and publishes a magazine on carrier aviation called Hook.

ABCNEWS’ Barbara Starr and The Associated Press contributed to this report.