Navy Scandal Blamed on a ‘Handful’ : Tailhook: Acting secretary says a few junior officers sexually harassed women at convention. The service’s morale has suffered, he adds.

The Navy’s acting secretary said Wednesday that a “handful of junior officers” had sexually abused women at the Tailhook convention and that too many people “have been tarred with a brush they really don’t deserve.”

Sean O’Keefe, in his first extensive comments on the scandal, said the service’s morale “has been battered” as a result of the incidents at the 1991 aviators’ convention in Las Vegas.

“The issue that disturbs me is . . . there’s a handful of junior officers who somehow have forgotten the term ‘officer and a gentleman’ didn’t come from a Hollywood script,” O’Keefe told reporters at a Pentagon briefing.

He noted that the term originated with John Paul Jones, the Revolutionary-era captain revered as the father of many Navy traditions.

“It came from the very essence of what the naval service is all about . . . and somebody forgot that along the way,” O’Keefe said.

He took over the top civilian slot two weeks ago in the wake of the resignation of H. Lawrence Garrett III, who cited a “leadership failure” in connection with the Navy’s response to the abuse cases.

O’Keefe joined Adm. Frank B. Kelso, the chief of naval operations, at the briefing to discuss the Navy’s long-awaited plans for reshuffling its top echelons. But questions about the Navy’s response to the events at the convention, where 26 women were sexually molested, took up much of the session.

The acting secretary said that while sexual harassment needs to be dealt with, “by no means should it be viewed as something that’s at the core of the entire naval service.”

O’Keefe, asked about the Navy’s decision last week to withdraw the nominations of two high-ranking admirals from consideration on Capitol Hill, said the “primary reason” was reorganization plans that did away with their jobs.

Kelso dismissed rumors that he intends to resign because of the controversy, and promised to press for consideration of female officers for promotion to admiral.

“I think we should look at qualified women to be admirals,” Kelso said. “Women will have a responsible role in this (new) lineup.”

Kelso and O’Keefe outlined their plans for a major reorganization of the chief of naval operation’s top staff.

The changes abolish separate offices for the admirals considered the “barons” of the Navy--submarine warfare, surface warfare and air warfare--in moves designed to cut down on infighting among branches eager for money and power amid budget cutbacks.

Kelso also announced that Vice Adm. Bill Owens, a former assistant to Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, will take over the revamped office that will oversee three warfare branches.

While Kelso and O’Keefe offered no cost-savings estimate for the changes, they said it would cut about 150 officer, enlisted and civilian jobs in Washington.

AN OFFICER AND A VICTIM? A Navy officer convicted of sexual harassment says he’s a ‘sacrificial lamb.’ B1