Navy Chief Seeks Admiral’s Ouster Over Tailhook

President Clinton’s new Navy secretary has recommended that the service’s top officer, Adm. Frank B. Kelso, resign or be fired as chief of naval operations because of “a lack of leadership” in the handling of the Tailhook scandal, officials said Friday.

The recommendation by Navy Secretary John H. Dalton has been forwarded to Defense Secretary Les Aspin, who has not decided whether to act on it, officials said, adding that his decision is expected sometime next week.

Dalton, who has been reviewing the conduct of 40 senior officers in connection with the Navy’s handling of the episode, also has urged disciplinary action against a dozen other admirals.

Kelso has not been accused of any personal wrongdoing in connection with the Tailhook incident, in which naval aviators attending a convention of the Tailhook Assn. in Las Vegas engaged in an evening of wild partying and allegedly assaulted 83 women sexually, including some female officers. Neither Dalton nor Aspin could be reached for comment, and senior officials declined to elaborate on the charges.

Well-placed Administration officials insisted that Aspin and other top policy-makers have deep respect for Kelso’s performance as chief of naval operations, the Na vy’s top military job, and that Dalton’s recommendation was made solely because Kelso was in command at the time of the scandal in 1991.

Nevertheless, if Kelso is fired or forced to resign, it would mark the most stunning disciplinary action taken so far by the Navy in connection with Tailhook, which already has shaken the service’s officer ranks and prompted it to undertake significant steps to confront the problem of sexual harassment in the service.

In June, 1992, H. Lawrence Garrett III, who was secretary of the Navy when the Tailhook incident occurred, resigned, taking full responsibility for the scandal. A few months later, Garrett’s successor, Sean O’Keefe, stripped three admirals of their jobs. Two of them subsequently retired.

Dalton, a Louisiana businessman and former naval officer, assumed the Navy’s top civilian post in August with the aim of making a review of the Tailhook cases his first order of business.

Kelso, a submarine officer, is scheduled to retire when his term expires next summer. Universally regarded as a decent and hard-working man, he has pushed for many changes in the Navy over the past few years, including a new post-Cold War sea doctrine and more combat jobs for women.

Disciplining the most senior commander for any mishap--whether or not he directly caused the wrongdoing--is a tradition in the service. Ship captains routinely are relieved of command, for example, when their vessels run aground, even if they were not directly responsible.

The Tailhook scandal has rocked the Navy since it broke in mid-1992, prompting Congress to delay promotions and transfers of some officers and setting off a broad investigation. An inspector general’s report implicated 117 officers and found that 51 had lied to investigators.

At the same time, however, the Navy has had a difficult time making many of the charges stick in subsequent courts-martial. Only about three cases out of 97 have resulted in convictions. Officials have blamed the outcome on sketchy evidence and a code of silence among naval aviators.

The possibility that Dalton’s review would end with a recommendation that Kelso be fired had been rumored for several weeks, but Friday marked the first time that definitive word on the issue came from the Pentagon. The recommendation was first reported Friday evening by CBS News.

Kelso delivered a speech on naval aviation during the Tailhook Assn. convention and left not long afterward. Pentagon investigators found that, while Kelso sipped drinks at an outdoor patio, scores of naval officers in a nearby hallway were grabbing women and pushing them through a gantlet of drunken fliers.

Asked after the inspector general’s report was made public whether he would resign, the four-star admiral said: “No, I’m not going to resign. I take the responsibility for what happens on my watch. I think what I need to do is to continue to work to fix it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”