Photos Reveal Girl’s Assault at Tailhook : Scandal: Rolls of film contain pictures of Marines--some reportedly from O.C.--and Navy fliers manhandling and undressing the teen-ager.

Department of Defense investigators have been given several rolls of film that contain graphic pictures of an intoxicated 17-year-old girl being manhandled and undressed by dozens of rowdy aviators in a hotel corridor at the 1991 Tailhook convention.

The drunken teen-ager staggered out of a hospitality suite and was immediately pounced upon by male Marine and Navy aviators--some reportedly from the El Toro Marine Air Station--who removed her jeans and panties, all while someone photographed the incident.

Sources said that aviators at Miramar Naval Air Station who “had a bout of conscience” have turned over as many as five rolls of film to investigators from the Department of Defense inspector general’s office.

Although some of the photos are said to be dark and grainy, there is at least one clear photo of a young, naked woman who had apparently been stripped in a gantlet of drunken officers, sources said.

A witness to the incident, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was on the third floor at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel when the 17-year-old girl, whom he described as “knee-walking drunk,” staggered into the hallway.

“This obviously under-age, short female staggered out of one of the suites and was immediately swept up by the crowd,” said the witness. He said he had gone to the hotel’s third floor with his roommate to look for a friend.

According to several reports, as many as 200 officers crowded into the third-floor hallway, forming a gantlet in which as many as 26 women, including 13 Navy officers, were groped and sexually assaulted.

“This young girl was literally passed from man to man into the main part of the crowd. Various parts of her clothing were being pulled off. They got to remove her jeans and panties before two hotel security guards came to her rescue,” the witness said.

One of the photos taken of the incident showed her being led away by a hotel security guard. As the teen-ager was being escorted out of the hallway, an unidentified officer ran after her and the guards, waving the young woman’s jeans and panties, the witness added.

“She was very drunk and could hardly stand up. You could describe her as being knee-walking drunk. When she walked by me when she was being taken away I saw her smiling and grinning. It was kind of sad,” the witness said.

A source who saw photographs of the naked girl said she appeared to have been drenched with beverages.

Although the witness said he did not recognize any of the aviators who assaulted the teen-ager, he said most were Marines from an El Toro reconnaissance squadron nicknamed the “Rhinos.” The squadron, VMF-P3, was disbanded in August, 1990.

Hotel security guards reportedly told Naval Investigative Service agents that they had not seen anything amiss on the third floor, despite charges by more than two dozen women who said they were stripped, fondled, bitten or sexually assaulted by drunken officers.

The agents conducted an investigation of the Tailhook scandal for the Navy, but congressional critics complained that the probe was bungled. A second investigation was begun by the inspector general last month.

Sources familiar with the latest inquiry said they found two other women who said they were sexually assaulted on the third floor. However, the women, both reserve officers living in Orange County, said they did not want to file charges against their attackers.

About 300 Navy officers at Miramar were interviewed by investigators. With political pressure growing both inside and outside the military to find and punish the culprits, the traditional rivalry between the Navy and Marine Corps has turned ugly.

“The Navy guys can ID the Marine guys (in the photographs) but they don’t seem to be able to ID the guys they spent three years in (flight) school with,” said one Marine pilot. “They closed ranks pretty much like everyone expected.”