Workshop Set Tone for Tailhook, Officers Say : Scandal: Women Navy officers were derided in a raucous pilots’ session before the incident in a Las Vegas hotel hallway.

The tone for the Tailhook sex scandal that erupted in the hallway of a Las Vegas hotel was set a few hours earlier in a workshop where about 2,000 male aviators raucously hooted at the idea of women as combat pilots, said three Navy officers who attended.

The audience of mostly men roundly cheered speakers who opposed deploying women as combat aviators, according to a videotape of the Sept. 7, 1991, workshop, and jeered women officers who asked about their futures in naval aviation. Top Navy brass who observed did not call for order or rebuke the male aviators.

But some male aviators who attended last September’s Tailhook Assn. convention blame the admirals and former Navy Secretary H. Lawrence Garrett III, who were at the workshop, for not admonishing the pilots.

Three male aviators, who agreed to be interviewed on the condition that they not be identified, said the workshop created an atmosphere that fostered acceptance of sexist behavior and led to the sexual harassment that occurred about two hours later.

The aviators said that the flag officers--including Adm. Frank B. Kelso, chief of naval operations, and Adm. Robert J. Kelly, commander of the U. S. Pacific Fleet--who were present at the symposium could have put a stop to the conduct but allowed things to get out of hand, and then let the blame fall on junior officers.

“Not one of the gentlemen on the panel, not Kelso, not Kelly, not any of the senior people (stood up to) say, ‘Gentlemen, that’s inappropriate sexual behavior,’ ” said an officer who attended.

More than 25 women, half of them Navy officers, charged that they were groped and assaulted on the third floor of the Las Vegas Hilton by Navy and Marine pilots who lined the hallway. A Navy report said one of the victims was an intoxicated 17-year-old girl who passed out, was partially disrobed and passed from man to man.

Although both Kelly and Kelso were at the earlier symposium, neither man sat on the panel of officers that took questions from the floor.

A spokeswoman for Kelso said he was unavailable for comment Monday.

In a telephone interview Monday, Kelly scoffed at the charge that he and the other admirals contributed to the assaults later that evening by not putting a stop to the jeers and catcalls by men in the audience.

“To say that set the tone for the misbehavior of some individuals on the third floor is ludicrous,” Kelly said. “What caused the problem on the third floor was too much alcohol.” He called the hallway attacks against the women “felonious assaults.”

Kelly also said that the catcalling and derisive comments did not get out of hand. He said that he saw no reason to tone down the question-and-answer session because the moderator, Vice Adm. Richard M. Dunleavy, was doing a good job of running the panel. Dunleavy retired in June.

In the videotape, a male officer is heard telling the panel of admirals that he participated in a 1991 study that among other things revealed that 65% of enlisted women in the pay grades E-4 and below became pregnant while on sea duty.

“It’s killing our (combat) readiness . . . all across-the-board,” said the officer, to sustained applause and shouts of encouragement.

Dunleavy attempted to keep the workshop on track by telling the audience that they were there to discuss the future of women “flying combat aircraft, not the white hats (women sailors serving aboard ships).” The admiral’s comment was greeted with a chorus of boos.

Another admiral was asked about a report issued by a presidential commission that is investigating the role of women in combat.

“There’s a lot of recommendations in that report . . . that I think we need to take a good hard look at,” said the admiral, who was not identified in the videotape.

He paused and then finished the comment with, “if we’re going to do women on the ships right.” The finishing comment was greeted with laughter, applause and shouts of “Yeah, all right!” from the audience.

Dunleavy, apparently addressing the sexual innuendo in the admiral’s remark, said, “What the admiral meant to say was--” but did not finish the sentence. Dunleavy’s comment was greeted with more shouts and laughter.