Tailhook Convention Grounded in Wake of Scandal : Military: More than two dozen women charged they were sexually abused at last year’s gathering, resulting in widespread investigations of misconduct.

The 1992 Tailhook convention was canceled Tuesday night, a move prompted by wide-ranging investigations of sexual misconduct at the 1991 gathering of naval and Marine aviators, officials said.

The Tailhook Assn., a Bonita-based booster group that sponsors the annual meeting, said it was canceling this year’s event “in the best interests of both the association and the Navy.”

As the investigation intensified Tuesday into last year’s convention, where more than two dozen women charge they were sexually abused, Tailhook Assn. spokesman Steve Millikin said it “just doesn’t seem appropriate” to make plans for this year’s event. The group’s board voted unanimously Tuesday night to call off the event, Millikin said.

The Navy is weighing charges, ranging from courts-martial to mild reprimands, against 70 or more Navy and Marine officers who attended the September, 1991, convention at the Las Vegas Hilton.

At least 26 women, more than half of them officers, were pushed, fondled and grabbed by a “gantlet” of mostly junior officers lining a third-floor corridor of the hotel, according to a report by the Navy inspector general released earlier this year.

Senior Navy officers had long known of the atmosphere at the annual event, which typically features strippers, pornographic movies and alcohol, the inspector general said. Most of these parties also were on the third floor in “hospitality suites” maintained by aircraft squadrons.

So far, one naval aviator stationed in Florida has faced a disciplinary “admiral’s mast.” He was given counseling, but no permanent letter will be placed in his record, officials said.

The Navy has also said it is instituting a “zero tolerance” policy against sexual abuse and harassment, and is requiring all sailors and officers to take a course in dealing with sexual harassment issues.

Earlier Tuesday, Navy Secretary H. Lawrence Garrett disclosed that he was briefly at the 1991 convention and grabbed a beer from a hotel room. But he said he never saw “any inappropriate or offensive conduct,” and a Navy spokesman in Washington said Garrett is not the target of any probe.

The Tailhook Assn. is a booster club of retired and active-duty aviators.

It is named after the hook that snags planes landing on aircraft carriers.

Two months ago, the group had decided to move the 1992 convention from Las Vegas to San Diego, spokesman Millikin said. It was scheduled for Sept. 18-19 at the Town & Country Hotel, he said.

But late Tuesday, Millikin said, the association opted to call things off--at least for a year. No decision has been made on 1993 or beyond, he said.