Navy Officers to Get Partial Refund for Party Fee : Military: The repayments for the $22 fee will be only $8. Some who paid were on leave and didn’t know about the reception.

Navy officers who were assessed $22 each so the commander of the Third Fleet could host a reception for foreign navy officers will be issued partial refunds, officials said Wednesday.

However, Lt. Cmdr. Mike Brady, a Third Fleet spokesman, said the individual refunds will only total $8.

The assessments, which Brady said were approved by Vice Adm. Jerry Unruh, commander of the Third Fleet, were the subject of controversy in July, when some angry officers said they were forced to pay the money.

Unruh, whose headquarters is a North Island Naval Air Station, hosted the July 28 party at the Aerospace Museum at Balboa Park. Museum director Edwin McKeller said between 1,200 and 1,500 people attended the reception.

Brady said that Navy brass decided to refund eight dollars to each officer because the cost of the reception averaged about $14 per couple. All those who gave money were invited, Brady said. It is unknown how many U.S. Navy officers took guests to the reception. The number of foreign officers attending the reception is also unknown.

Several junior officers were still fuming Wednesday over the assessments. The officers, who declined to be identified, charged the assessments were a violation of the Standards of Conduct issued by the Secretary of the Navy in March, 1989. They said that Unruh was illegally using his status as a commanding officer to force them to contribute to a reception that many of them did not attend.

The 1989 Standards of Conduct forbids a commanding officer from soliciting gifts or contributions from a subordinate. The guideline addressed under “contributions and gifts to superiors” expressly says that any gifts or contributions to a superior must be “voluntary” and intended to “mark significant personal occasions.”

Another section forbids commanding officers from using “their official positions to improperly induce, coerce subordinates . . . to provide any benefit, financial or otherwise, to themselves or others.”

Asked about the apparent violation, Navy officials in Washington said they would check into the matter.

The sometimes unwilling donors were participants in a 40-day exercise with sailors and aviators from the Japanese, Korean, Australian and Canadian navies. A total of 45 ships participated in the exercise, including 23 U.S. ships.

Assessments were made according to the number of officers in each U.S. unit that participated in the exercise. Some angry officers said they were on leave at the time of the exercise and only found out when they returned that a reception had been held--and that they nonetheless had to pay the $22.

Brady declined to say how much money was collected from the U.S. officers. One Navy source said he was told the reception cost about $16,000.

Museum officials normally charge $5,000 to groups wishing to hold receptions at the museum after hours, McKeller said. However, the Navy was only required to donate $1,000 to the museum in return for allowing them to use the premises for the reception, he added.

Navy officials had steadfastly refused to discuss details of the reception. Last month, several angry officers charged that the assessments were ordered by Unruh. On Wednesday, Brady said the reception “was hosted by the Navy” but refused to say who ordered or approved the $22 assessments.

He insisted that “each command had the option as to how they handled the cost of the reception.”

“How the costs were assessed was not directed by anyone,” Brady added.

He also said that he did not know how the $22 assessment was calculated or who ordered it. However, after further questions and phone calls to his office he acknowledged that “Admiral Unruh approved the initial fee of $22.”

But, Brady insisted, it was “a subordinate command” that planned the party. He declined to identify the command or individuals whom he said planned the reception.

“This is typical of the double standards and hypocrisy of the senior leadership in the Navy today,” said one Miramar Naval Air Station aviator who was required to contribute money for the reception hosted by Unruh.

However, a senior Navy officer defended both the fund raising and the reception as proper.

“There are certain social obligations that come with the turf. And this was one of them,” said Capt. Tom Jurkowsky, spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Hawaii.

Previous exercises by the same allied navies have been hosted by different nations. And the end of each exercise is marked by reception put together by the host country, Jurkowsky said.

“What it comes down to is that if you don’t do a function, then the U.S. Navy is embarrassed. And you can’t pay for it out of taxpayer funds because that’s illegal,” he said. “What it boils down to is doing it this way.”