Military Judge Says Adm. Kelso Saw Misconduct, Covered It Up

A military judge on Tuesday accused Adm. Frank B. Kelso of witnessing sexual misconduct at the 1991 Tailhook Assn. convention and then trying to cover it up. He dismissed charges against three aviators who contended their cases were tainted by the Navy chief’s actions.

The judge, Navy Capt. William T. Vest Jr., also accused top Navy officials of not paying attention to instances of sexual misconduct at earlier Tailhook meetings. If they had, Vest said, “a high probability exists that both the assaults and much of the Navy’s embarrassment could have been avoided.”

The dismissals leave only one case pending in the investigation of the Tailhook scandal, which damaged the image of Navy and Marine Corps aviators. Of 140 cases, no one was court-martialed and about 50 people received administrative discipline.

“That fact that here it is over two years later and nothing has occurred, to me it’s outrageous,” said Karen Johnson, national secretary for the National Organization for Women and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel.

Pentagon investigators concluded that 83 women were assaulted or molested at the convention, many of them on the third floor of the Las Vegas Hilton, where men lined the hallway on the night of Sept. 7, 1991, and grabbed women as they tried to pass.

Kelso, chief of naval operations, “manipulated the initial investigative process and the subsequent (discipline) process in a manner designed to shield his personal involvement in Tailhook ‘91,” Vest wrote in his decision.

The judge concluded that Kelso was “in error” when he testified that he did not go to the third floor that night and did not see any misconduct.

“This court specifically finds Adm. Kelso visited the third deck patio at some time during the evening hours,” Vest wrote. “This court further finds Adm. Kelso was exposed to incidents of inappropriate behavior while on the patio on Saturday evening, including public nudity and ‘leg-shaving’ activities.”

Kelso, who is scheduled to retire in July, declined comment. Navy officials were reviewing the decision and declined comment.

Vest’s ruling in the cases of Cmdrs. Thomas R. Miller and Gregory Tritt and Lt. David Samples makes it unlikely that any Navy fliers will face trials as a result of Tailhook. The case still pending involves a Marine Corps lieutenant colonel.

Last November, Kelso testified during a pretrial hearing for Miller and Tritt that he stayed on the hotel’s ground floor on the night in question. However, numerous witnesses said they saw the admiral on the third-floor swimming pool patio near a group of suites that featured such entertainment as strippers and leg-shaving.

Vest also said inaction by Kelso after Tailhook allowed the Navy investigation to be limited to officers below the rank of rear admiral. That “was part of a calculated effort to minimize the exposure of the involvement and personal conduct” of senior officers who attended the convention, he said.