Crew Calls Gay Sailor’s Killing Isolated Incident : Military: As Belleau Wood returns to home port in Japan for first time since beating, some seamen say a couple of ‘rednecks’--not the atmosphere on board--are to blame.

For a Navy that was not supposed to have gay sailors, the subject of homosexuality has an unusual familiarity in this otherwise quiet family community of 3,000 Americans at the Navy base here.

Nearly everyone recognizes its existence in their midst.

But in the aftermath of the killing of a self-acknowledged gay sailor Oct. 27 and President Clinton’s move to officially approve the presence of gays and lesbians in the armed forces, the subject has become sensitivity issue No. 1 here.

Few sailors were willing to talk to reporters after the amphibious assault ship Belleau Wood, to which the murdered man had been assigned, returned to its home port here Friday for the first time since the murder. All but one who did answer questions refused to allow their names to be used. And the commander of the Belleau Wood twice declined to comment on charges made by gay advocate groups in the United States that he ran a “rough ship.”

Some reports have quoted the victim, Seaman Allen R. Schindler, 22, of Chicago Heights, Ill., as telling friends and his mother that harassment and threats had made the Belleau Wood into “Helleau Wood” for him. But those reports appeared to surprise some of the ship’s crew, who had not seen American TV or newspapers since the vessel put out to sea from Sasebo on Oct. 28.

“It’s not the problem of a ship. It’s just a problem of two rednecks who beat up a gay,” said a medical corpsman aboard the Belleau Wood. He asked not to be identified.

He and two other crewmen had high praise for Capt. Douglas Bradt, the ship’s commander. They described him as a skilled manager who “got things done on time” and a “very caring” commander to his crew.

They said Bradt had told them not to discuss the killing with reporters. The captain did not return calls placed to his aides.

Officially, the Navy has said only that Schindler never made his superiors aware of any threats to him by shipmates.

The three Belleau Wood crewmen, however, agreed that relations among the crew were “tense.” Usually, 930 men and women serve aboard the ship, and when it is carrying a battalion of Marines, up to 3,000 personnel can be aboard, they said.

Japanese police in Sasebo refused to comment on charges made by gay advocates in the United States that Belleau Wood crewmen stood out as troublemakers. An officer in the foreign crime section denied one report that Belleau Wood sailors had overturned cars here during the ship’s monthlong port call in autumn.

Steve Morgan, a former sailor who retired in 1971 and now operates the Shooters Bar--advertising “booze and darts”--in Sasebo’s “Sailor Town,” said he had seen no signs of wildness in the Belleau Wood crew.

“I haven’t had any kind of problem here--no fights, no damage, not even a broken ashtray. When the Belleau Wood is in town, they’ve filled my bar and have been good customers,” Morgan said.

Sailors from the Belleau Wood as well as other 7th Fleet ships in port here all said they are aware that homosexuals are aboard their ships and said that, for the most part, they cause little trouble. But all agreed that trouble would start if heterosexuals could positively identify gays.

A sailor who identified himself as a crewman of the submarine tender Holland, which is based on Guam, said about homosexuality: “God created man for woman, not man for man. That says it all.”

Dave Lippman, 30, of Hoboken, N.J., a sailor stationed at Sasebo with an administrative job who asked that his rank be withheld, said shock spread throughout the Navy community quickly after the killing.

“This is a small community with families and children. Things like that just don’t happen here,” he said. “Nobody likes sailors killing sailors.”

Sasebo police reported that the Schindler killing was one of four murders--the other three involving Japanese--that occurred in the city in 1992.

“There are 3,000 people here, and you’d get a different opinion (about gays) from each one of them,” Lippman said. Many in the Navy are prepared to accept gays, as long as they uphold the Navy’s standards of conduct at work, he said. But “many youths enter the Navy from small towns where they’ve never met blacks, gays or any ethnic group. The only thing most of them know about gays is from some gag they’ve heard on a TV comedy show,” he added.

“I knew gays in New York, and my last roommate here was gay. I had no problem with him,” Lippman said. “But there would be a problem if gays violated the rules of conduct while on duty. What they do off base is their own business.”

Sasebo is one of two major U.S. Navy bases in Japan--the headquarters base is at Yokosuka near the mouth of Tokyo Bay--and in September became the home port for the Belleau Wood.

The city, with a population of 250,000, is an old Japanese navy and shipbuilding port that has found a new life as a commercial center while continuing to serve as a home to the U.S. Navy and the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force. It is about 30 miles from Nagasaki on the southern island of Kyushu.

Crowded into flatlands at the foot of mountains, a bustling downtown district is accentuated by a covered mall of modern shops and restaurants, including McDonald’s, that cater to Japanese families.

A block toward the bay begins Sailor Town, a district of bars and restaurants that ends at the Sasebo River. Cross Albuquerque Bridge--a footbridge named to commemorate sister-city relations established in 1986 with the New Mexico city and, as a sign says in English, “to maintain eternal friendship with Albuquerque and the United States of America”--and you arrive in Sasebo Park.

Straight ahead and beyond a fence is a back entrance to Nimitz Park, a part of the Navy base, and a base housing area. To the left is a shortcut to the main gate of the base that passes by playgrounds, swings and benches--and a public toilet. Here, Schindler was brutally beaten on the night of Oct. 27.

The Navy says he died later, at a base clinic, but refuses to disclose any details.

The talk among the sailors here is that Schindler, Navy Airman Charles A. Vins, 20, of Sturgis, Mich., and Airman Apprentice Terry M. Helvey, 21, of Eloise, Mich., did not meet accidentally at the toilet but had been out drinking together. They reportedly stopped at the restroom on the way home after 11 p.m., and Schindler “made a pass at Helvey,” the sailors have said. Vins was convicted in a court-martial only for failing to report the beating that ensued, but initial Navy reports in October spoke of “two suspects.”

Helvey, a 6-foot, 4-inch, 240-pound bodybuilder who is to face a court-martial April 27 on a charge of murder, allegedly not only beat Schindler with his fists but also battered the gay sailor’s head against a tile shelf above the urinals in the restroom.

Over last weekend, Sasebo Park seemed an unlikely site for such brutality.

Two teen-age Japanese boys played guitars and sang rock ‘n’ roll songs, including Beatles tunes. Navy couples sat on benches, their pet dogs romping around them. Sailors with Japanese girlfriends strolled by young Japanese couples and their children.

Yet, at the entrance to the park from Albuquerque Bridge stood two signs erected by the city.

One, in Japanese and English, reads: “Caution. Excessive Drinking at This Park Is Forbidden. The Mayor of Sasebo.” The other, on the back of the first sign, is written in English only. It reads: “Caution. No Indecent Conducts (sic) at This Park. The Mayor of Sasebo.”

At other parks in Sasebo, the only signs--in Japanese--urge residents to clean up after pets and deposit trash in garbage cans.

Sasebo is a far cry from the image of many overseas Navy towns.

Here, Sailor Town bars offer no hostesses for companionship with the customers. One large bar that caters to the Navy, the Pub Royal, is staffed entirely by heavily painted female bartenders--a few pushing 50 but most pulling it. They all serve customers from behind the bar.

The young Japanese girlfriends seen around the town on the arms of sailors do not work in the bars. In Sailor Town, the only visible female companionship is provided by Navy women on dates with the sailors.

At Shooters Bar, chu-hai, a Japanese highball mix of lemonade and shochu, an offshoot of sake (rice wine), is one of the most popular drinks. At the Windmill, a snack restaurant around the corner, fried rice and fried noodles are favorite takeout items.

Although Japanese bartenders report that they face repeated troubles with arguments and fights that break out among the sailors, Sailor Town was as quiet as a church last weekend.

Most of the time, Morgan said, there are few signs of tension over homosexuals.

“They come in here and drink with everybody else,” Morgan said, adding: “There are no homosexual bars in Sasebo.”