Navy Reevaluating Split With Tailhook Assn.

After eight years of treating the Tailhook Assn. as a “pariah” because of abusive treatment of women at its 1991 convention, the Navy has decided to move toward restoring formal ties to the group.

In a letter Tuesday to officials of the San Diego-based organization, Navy Secretary Richard Danzig said he will send three senior military officials--including one of the highest-ranking women in the armed forces--to Tailhook’s convention next week in Sparks, Nev., as official observers.

If the three, Vice Adm. Mike Bowman, Marine Lt. Gen. John Rhodes and Assistant Navy Secretary Carolyn Becraft, conclude that the group has reformed, the process of possibly re-integrating Tailhook “into the mainstream of naval aviation” will continue, Danzig said.

“The association has taken a number of constructive steps that warrant a review of its status,” Danzig wrote. “These include adopting resolutions condemning harassment. . . . I need to assess the extent to which the association lives by these principles.”

Tailhook officials, although disappointed that Danzig did not go further, said they have no doubt that the three observers will find the naval aviation group changed.

“The big issue is women in combat,” said J.R. Davis, a retired Navy captain who is Tailhook’s executive director, “and that is no longer an issue with younger guys, with guys currently in the fleet. The Navy has changed; the culture has changed. We’re all on board with the idea of women in combat situations.”

The Navy secretary’s move has the backing of Defense Secretary William Cohen, according to Danzig’s spokesman, Cmdr. Brian Cullin. On Tuesday, Danzig gave a briefing on his decision to congressional leaders, including Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, who has urged that ties be restored.

Although it has been known for months that the Navy was reevaluating its relationship with Tailhook, no organized opposition has surfaced.

The National Organization for Women has not taken a position, but a NOW vice president, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Johnson, expressed concern Tuesday that restoring ties might send a message to some men in the Navy that it is safe to resume sexist behavior.

“The partying at Tailhook had become such a tradition,” she said, “that I’m afraid that what this will say to some men is, ‘OK, we’ve been out of the public spotlight for a while, so now we can go back to the old ways; just be more discreet about it.’ ”

Judging strictly by the numbers, the role of women in the Navy has changed dramatically since 1991, aided in part by the political firestorm in Congress caused by what Danzig calls the “shameful events” of the 1991 convention.

At that time, women were not allowed in combat aircraft. That ban has since been dropped, and there are now more than 300 women among the 10,000 aviators in the Navy and Marine Corps. There are also six female captains of front-line ships.

“Our profile as a company has changed dramatically since 1991,” Cullin said.

Danzig said his final decision will be guided by evidence indicating that Tailhook offers professional “enrichment” and not just a party, that Tailhook members support women in aviation and that the group has taken steps to prevent a recurrence of the 1991 behavior.

Bowman is commander of Navy aviation for the Pacific Fleet, and Rhodes is commanding general of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command. Becraft, who will lead the delegation, is assistant Navy secretary for manpower and reserve affairs.

Bowman has written in the association magazine, the Hook, that the Navy should reestablish links with Tailhook. Danzig, in a speech in March, said that the estrangement between the Navy and Tailhook “displeases me” and that it was time to stop treating association members as “pariahs.”

Founded in 1956 as a group to support carrier-based aviation, Tailhook offered an annual convention that was part party, part professional seminar. Over the years, the partying became rowdier.

At the 1991 convention in Las Vegas, drunken active-duty aviators mauled dozens of women, some military members, mostly civilians, in a gantlet formed in a hotel hallway. Among the victims was an aide to an admiral.

When word of the debauchery became public, the Navy severed ties with Tailhook, which meant officers could no longer attend while on duty and could not use military vehicles and aircraft to get to the convention.