Woman Who First Reported Tailhook Sex Scandal Resigns

The woman who blew the whistle on the Tailhook sex scandal is resigning, the Navy said Thursday.

No reason for Lt. Paula Coughlin’s resignation was given, but CBS and NBC reported that she was quitting because of continued harassment over Tailhook.

“I don’t know the reasons,” said Lt. Susan Haeg, a spokeswoman for the Navy’s Atlantic Fleet in Norfolk, where Coughlin is assigned to a helicopter combat support unit.

NBC News and CBS News, which obtained copies of her letter of resignation, said Coughlin cited her Tailhook assault and continuing abuse since she made it public as the reasons for leaving.

“The physical attack on me by the Naval aviators at the 1991 Tailhook convention and the covert attacks on me that followed have stripped me of my ability to serve,” NBC quoted her letter.

Also Thursday, a Navy source told the Associated Press that the admiral overseeing punishments stemming from the Tailhook convention is likely to accept a judge’s dismissal of the last three cases.

Vice Adm. J. Paul Reason probably will not appeal Capt. William T. Vest Jr.’s ruling but has not made a final decision, said the source, who is close to Reason.

Reason was expected to announce his decision today.

Coughlin, then an admiral’s aide, was the first woman to come forward with a report of being groped as she was forced down a hotel hallway gantlet of drunken aviators at the Las Vegas convention.

Her resignation letter was submitted earlier this week, Haeg said. She said it would take two or three months before the resignation is processed and Coughlin leaves the service.

“There’s a certain amount of paperwork and other things to take care of,” she said.

Coughlin has an unlisted telephone number and could not be reached for comment.

Her allegations about Tailhook helped uncover a scandal that shook the Navy at its highest levels as dozens of women eventually came forward to say they had also been attacked.

Although no one went to trial for Tailhook offenses, the scandal resulted in the firing of the secretary of the Navy and the demotion of a retired senior admiral.