Fiscal Expert Named Acting Navy Secretary : Military: Sean O’Keefe, 36, top Pentagon financial officer, will head the service. Action follows sex harassment scandal.

President Bush on Tuesday named Sean O’Keefe, the Pentagon’s top financial officer and a confidant of Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, to be acting secretary of the Navy, placing him at the helm as the service struggles to recover from the Tailhook sex-harassment scandal.

The appointment of O’Keefe, a 36-year-old fiscal expert who has never served in the armed forces, was intended to intensify civilian control over the Navy, which has been buffeted by both the Tailhook scandal and skirmishes with Congress over aircraft procurement.

O’Keefe replaces H. Lawrence Garrett III, who resigned June 26 after accepting responsibility for the Tailhook incident. Twenty-six women, half of them naval officers, were allegedly sexually harassed last year at a convention of the Tailhook Assn., a naval aviators’ group.

J. Daniel Howard, who has been serving as acting secretary since Garrett stepped down, will return to his previous job as undersecretary. Although Cheney took pains to praise him on Tuesday, insiders said that Howard was regarded by some as too close to the Tailhook investigation.

The designation of O’Keefe was signed by Bush while he was attending the seven-nation economic summit in Munich on Tuesday. There had been reports that a woman might be named to the job. Several names were mentioned, including Rep. Beverly B. Byron (D-Md.), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, and Barbara S. Pope, assistant secretary of the Navy for manpower and reserve affairs. Byron was defeated in last spring’s Maryland primary.

However, Cheney told reporters Tuesday that the appointment of O’Keefe was intended primarily to get someone into the job quickly without having to wait for the often-sluggish congressional confirmation process. He hinted that Bush still could choose a woman later.

“I would not take this decision today as in any way foreclosing options for the future with respect to who ultimately would be nominated by the President to serve as secretary of the Navy,” he said.

O’Keefe was appointed under a complex series of laws that enables him to serve for a minimum of 120 days--beyond the November election--or until the Senate has confirmed the nomination of his successor, which could run into early 1993.

Cheney indicated that O’Keefe also was chosen because he has maintained close ties with lawmakers. Before coming to the Pentagon, O’Keefe served for several years on the staff of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

As he has in the past, Cheney again left no doubts about his own opinion of the Tailhook incident, calling it “outrageous . . . behavior that is absolutely unacceptable,” and promising to move aggressively to deal with it.

“I have no reason to believe but what there was misconduct,” he told reporters.

At the same time, Cheney said that he still views the incident as isolated, and “not . . . typical of the United States Navy.” He said that it would be unfair for the nation to judge the Navy based on the Tailhook scandal.

O’Keefe is expected to continue the effort that Howard began earlier this month to crack down on sexual harassment in the Navy by making clear the Navy’s opposition to such behavior and severely punishing those found guilty of it.

At Howard’s urging, four Navy officers implicated in a separate incident at Miramar Naval Air Station near San Diego already have been relieved of their commands and Howard had ordered all Navy and Marine units to spend one day in the next two months on sensitivity training.

Meanwhile, Tailhook Assn. spokesman Steve Millikin, a retired Navy captain, said Tuesday that two captains and a lieutenant commander have resigned from the board of directors after a directive from the Navy secretary ordering them to do so. Millikin said six of the 11 board members are active duty naval aviators.

He identified the three who have resigned as Capt. Frederic G. Ludwig Jr., Capt. Richard F. Braden and Lt. Cmdr. James P. Usbeck. Millikin said he had not heard from the other three active-duty officers, but said they may not have acted yet on the order because they may be at sea.

Times staff writer H.G. Reza in San Diego contributed to this story.

PROFILE / Sean O’Keefe

Here is background on Sean O’Keefe, who was named acting secretary of the Navy:

Age: 36

Born: New Orleans, La.

Education: Undergraduate degree from Loyola University in New Orleans, where he was president of the student government. Master’s degree in public administration from Syracuse University.

Resume: Comptroller of the Defense Department since May 22, 1989. Served on Senate Appropriations Committee staff from 1981 through 1989, the last three years as staff director of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Before that he was a budget analyst at the Naval Sea Systems Command.

Personal: O’Keefe and his wife, Laura, have a daughter and two sons. They reside in Arlington, Va.