Sex Abuse Incident Brings Admiral Permanent Penalty

The Navy has decided to permanently remove an admiral from his command because he allegedly failed to take “timely action” in response to complaints of sex abuse, it was announced Friday.

In November, Adm. Frank B. Kelso, the chief of naval operations, ordered Rear Adm. Jack Snyder temporarily relieved of his duties as commanding officer at the Patuxent River Naval Air Test Center in Maryland. The action followed an investigation into charges of sex abuse at the 1991 Tailhook Assn. Symposium in Las Vegas.

In late October, the Navy announced that it was cutting ties with the association, which is composed of active-duty and retired Navy pilots and others who support naval aviation, after reports surfaced that several women were abused at its September meeting.

According to officials familiar with the situation, one of the incidents involved a female military aide who attended the meeting with Snyder.

The officials, who commented only on condition of anonymity, said naval pilots formed a gantlet in a hotel hallway, called out “admiral’s aide, admiral’s aide” as she came by and then tried to rip off her clothes and grabbed her private body parts.

Snyder, a past president of the Tailhook Assn., was not present but was told of the incident, the officials said.

A Navy spokesman said Friday that Kelso had decided to permanently remove Snyder because of “a lack of timely action in directing an investigation into certain events at the 1991 Tailhook Assn. in Las Vegas.”

Lt. Fred Henney said Snyder had been transferred to temporary duty at the Naval Air Systems Command during the investigation. He now must await a new assignment, Henney said.