Navy Report Faults Brass in Sex Assaults at Convention : Military: Inspector general criticizes admirals for ‘tacit approval’ of misconduct by Navy and Marine officers before 1991 Tailhook Assn. meeting.

A scathing report released Thursday by the Navy inspector general blasted Navy brass for allowing sexual assaults of women who attended the 1991 Tailhook Assn. convention in Las Vegas, where 26 women reported they were attacked during a three-day binge of drinking and sexual misconduct by Navy and Marine officers.

According to the 10-page report, Navy admirals had “tacitly approved” the questionable and, at times, illegal activity at previous Tailhook conventions. The San Diego-based Tailhook Assn. has 16,000 members and was founded in 1956 to promote Navy aviation. It takes its name from the hooks that snare planes landing on aircraft carriers.

Its members include both retired and active-duty Navy and Marine fliers. The group’s president is usually an active-duty Navy aviator stationed at Miramar Naval Air Station. Until the controversy erupted over allegations of sexual misconduct at the 1991 convention, Tailhook had its office at Miramar, where it paid neither rent nor utilities. The group moved its office off base late last year.

The long-awaited Navy report described in graphic detail the assaults on the women, half of whom were Navy officers, who attended the Sept. 5-7 convention at the Las Vegas Hilton. Most of the victims were attacked as they walked the gantlet of up to 200 Navy and Marine fliers who lined a third-floor hallway every night. The gantlet was introduced at the 1986 convention, the report said.

In one incident described in the report, an “obviously extremely intoxicated female minor” was taken out of a suite by a squadron officer and left in the hallway. According to the report, the young woman lost consciousness but was picked up and passed from man to man and partly disrobed.

The report said most of the victims complained that they were groped by the officers as they walked in the hallway.

A female officer reported that one man grabbed her buttocks and pressed his pelvis to her buttocks as she walked down the hallway. Other officers grabbed her breasts, and one man reached under her skirt and attempted to remove her panties, according to the report. When the female officer pleaded with another male officer to help her, the unidentified man responded by grabbing her breasts, investigators said.

A number of female officers who were assaulted did not report the attacks for fear that “the ensuing investigation and publicity would be detrimental to their careers,” the report said.

One of the victims was the aide to Rear Adm. Jack Snyder, who was relieved of his command in December by Adm. Frank Kelso, the chief of naval operations. The woman reported the incident to Snyder, but Navy officials said he failed to take timely action on the complaint.

Although 26 female victims of sexual assaults were interviewed by investigators, the report noted that “an additional unknown number of female victims . . . left (the convention) without being identified.”

Some women at the convention were familiar with the gantlet and walked through it willingly, investigators said. However, a large number of women were not familiar with the practice and protested against the activity, but their objections were ignored, the report said.

The report described the conduct by the Navy and Marine officers as “demeaning to women.” The officers’ misconduct was fueled by liquor and by raunchy activities in the squadrons’ suites, which featured pornographic films, scantily clad female bartenders and nude dancers who performed simulated sex acts with the male officers.

Investigators found that the bill for alcohol consumed in suites sponsored by Navy and Marine squadrons ranged up to $7,000 per suite.

In addition to the sexual assaults listed in the report, many officers also exposed themselves to women. Some women willingly joined in the debauchery by joining drunken officers in “mooning” others at the convention, the report said.

Naval Investigative Service agents interviewed about 1,500 participants at the Las Vegas convention. Investigators reported that the “overwhelming majority” of those interviewed exhibited a “what’s the big deal” attitude.

“Those interviewed had no understanding that the activities in the suites fostered an atmosphere of sexual harassment,” the report said, “and that the actions which occurred in the (hallway) corridor constituted at a minimum sexual harassment and, in many cases, criminal sexual assault.”

However, despite the investigators’ conclusions of criminal wrongdoing, no officers have been charged with crimes. The NIS investigators said their efforts were handicapped by officers who refused to cooperate in the investigation.

“Closing ranks and obfuscation were the predominant responses to the questions posed (by investigators),” the report said. “Except for a small number of junior officers, few participants interviewed during the investigation would talk openly about their activities or the activities they witnessed.”

The report said at least one admiral and several other senior Navy officers violated Department of Defense policy by allowing themselves to be entertained in some of the 20 suites at the hotel that were sponsored by defense contractors during the convention. About 80 corporations were represented at the convention.

Navy officials said the sexual misconduct featured at the 1991 convention occurred despite a pro forma letter sent to all squadron commanders before the convention, telling them that “no lewd or lascivious behavior would be tolerated.”

Navy and Marine fliers at the Tailhook convention wore civilian clothes but were flown to Las Vegas in military aircraft because they were considered to be on temporary duty. The taxpayer-subsidized gathering also resulted in $23,000 in damage to the hotel.

A statement released Thursday by Adm. Robert J. Kelly, commander of the U.S. Pacific fleet, said Navy commanders have an obligation to stop sexual harassment in their commands. Although Kelly did not directly address the inspector general’s report on the 1991 Tailhook convention, he said “commanders must create an atmosphere in which (sexual harassment) must not exist.”

Beginning today, Kelley will visit Navy bases in California, including San Diego, and Washington, where he said he will re-emphasize the Navy’s policy of zero tolerance for sexual harassment.