WASHINGTON -- In a long-delayed report on the Navy 'Tailhook' mass sexual assault case, the Pentagon's inspector general Friday called for criminal or disciplinary action against 168 Navy or Marine Corps officers.
'Tailhook...brought to light the fact that we had an institutional problem in how we treated women,' acknowledged Adm. Frank Kelso II, chief of naval operations. 'In that regard, it was a watershed event that has brought about cultural change.'
The report from Pentagon acting Inspector Gereral Derek Vander Schaaf said that 83 women, 21 of them Navy officers and one an Air Force lieutenant, were assaulted at the convention of the Tailhook Association in Las Vegas.
In addition, it said, seven military men were sexually assaulted. Of these, four of the attacks were by women, one by several other military men and two by persons unknown.
'Many attendees viewed the annual conference as a type of 'free fire zone' wherin they could act indiscriminately and without fear of censure or retribution in matters of sexual conduct and drunkenness,' the report said of the September 1991 convention where the alleged assults occurred.
'Some of the Navy's most senior officers were knowledgable as to the excesses practiced at Tailhook 91 and, by their inaction, those officers served to condone and even encourage the type of behavior that occurred there.'
The Pentagon inspector general's report said his office's investigation implicated 117 Navy or Marine officers, including 23 who participated in sexual assault and an equal number who engaged in indecent exposure.
The rest, it said, engaged in 'conduct unbecoming an officer or failure to act in a proper leadership capacity while at Tailhook 91.'
Another 51 officers, it said, lied to the inspector general's investigators who were looking into the scandal.
'Evidence concerning all such matters,' it said, 'has been referred to the Navy and or the Department of Justice for appropriate action.'
'Several hundred other officers,' the report said, 'were aware of the misconduct or chose to ignore it.'
The Pentagon inspector general report said the files on 30 Navy admirals, two Marine Corps generals and three Navy Reserve admirals who attended the convention will be made available to the service's top leadership.
The Tailhook Association, which sponsored the 1991 convention, is an organization of active and retired aircraft carrier pilots. The association takes its name from the grappling hook that dangles from their planes and permits them to land on flight decks by snagging an arresting cable.
'The environment and incidents of alcohol abuse and indecent conduct which evolved over a period of several years leading up to the 1991 Tailhook symposium, together with the physical assaults that are alleged to have taken place are contrary to what the nation has a right to expect of Marines,' said the Marine Commandant Gen. Carl Mundy.
Kelson and Mundy said they had set up special boards to examine each case of Tailhook misbehavior and determine what action should be taken against those responsible.
But neither Kelso, who himself attended the Tailhook convention and is currently acting Navy secretary pending confirmation and appointment of a civilian to the post, nor Mundy, a non-flyer, considered the abusive conduct at Tailhook to be typical of his service.
'These reported incidents are not epidemic,' Mundy said.
Defense Secretary Les Aspin said in a statement, 'I expect fair, thorough and impartial action on the cases and issues raised by this most regrettable episode, and will accept nothing less.'
The book-length report, with multiple annexes, colored diagrams and lurid snapshots taken at the Tailhook convention, made salty reading.
'Although our purpose is not to shock or offend readers...,' its foreword says, 'There are sections of the report that contain graphic language.'
'Some of the pictures are offensive and not in good taste,' the report concedes, 'but they add to any discription of what took place.'
Among other things, it says, what took place was the gantlet of drunken aviators who fondled women as they passed down a corridor in the Las Vegas Hilton. But there were also separate attacks in the 'hospitality suites' maintained by air squadrons and in the hotel parking lot.
All faces in the photographs are blacked out and no names are given in the report in order not to prejudice future legal or disciplinary actions.
The Pentagon inspector general's office became involved in the Tailgate case after the Navy's own investigators were unable to resolve it because of obstruction by participants and witnesses. After turning case over to the Pentagon last year, the then Navy Secretary, H. Lawrence Garrett, III, resigned.
