Shipboard Affair Costs Skipper Command

Allegations of sexual harassment continued to plague the Navy Monday, as officials announced that a ship’s captain was relieved of duty and two sailors under his command were being investigated for possible sexual misconduct.

Lt. Cmdr. D.J. Oswald was removed from command of the Safeguard on Monday, said Lt. Cmdr. Frank Thorpe, a Navy spokesman in San Diego. The Safeguard, a Pearl Harbor-based salvage and rescue ship, is at the Alameda Naval Station in the Bay Area.

Navy officials said Oswald was stripped of command pending an investigation into allegations of fraternization and sexual harassment aboard the ship. Sources familiar with the probe said Oswald himself is not charged with fraternization or sexual misconduct.

Instead, Oswald was relieved because his superiors believe he failed in a leadership role when two sailors aboard his ship engaged in a sexual affair. Sources said the other two sailors under investigation are a male officer and a female enlisted woman.

The U.S. military has a policy that forbids higher-ranking officers to “fraternize” with subordinates, even with troops of the same sex. In the military, fraternization can involve a sexual affair or just hanging around with subordinates when not on duty.

Thorpe declined to identify the two sailors under investigation or to offer additional details. A Navy report of the investigation said the two were removed from the ship.

The Safeguard was commissioned in 1984 and has a crew of 96 enlisted personnel, including 29 women. They are led by seven officers, one of them female.

According to Thorpe, the investigation resulted in part from a routine visit to the Safeguard and other ships in Combat Support Squadron 5 last November by members of the Navy inspector general’s staff.

“During that visit, the inspector general received unspecific allegations of sexual harassment from women assigned to the squadron,” Thorpe said.

When the inspector general’s staff reported its findings, the squadron commander met with all commanding and executive officers of units that have women assigned to them.

“The squadron commander discussed the results of the inspector general’s visit and detailed the Navy policy on sexual harassment and equal opportunity,” Thorpe said. “The commander also emphasized the Navy policy of zero tolerance for sexual harassment.”

He added that commanders of the Safeguard and the Salvor, also a Pearl Harbor-based salvage ship, were ordered by the squadron commander to implement training programs on the ships to make sailors aware of problems that arise from sexual harassment.

However, Navy officials said that the problem with sexual harassment was not as severe on the Salvor.

Although details of the investigation are sketchy, sources said that Oswald’s superiors were not satisfied with the results of the training program he instituted. On Monday, Rear Adm. William A. Retz, commander of the Naval Surface Group, Mid-Pacific, announced that Oswald had been relieved of command and that two other sailors are under investigation.

The investigation comes in the wake of the Tailhook sex scandal. Thousands of Navy and Marine Corps promotions have been jeopardized by the scandal and allegations that 26 women--half of them Navy officers--were sexually assaulted last year during the Tailhook convention of naval aviators in Las Vegas.

In addition, H. Lawrence Garrett III was pressured into resigning last month as Navy secretary. Critics charged that Garrett failed to push for a thorough investigation into charges of sexual misconduct at the 1991 Tailhook convention, and that he failed to discipline officers involved in the incident.