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Tailhook scandal

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Tailhook scandal
File:TailhookPatch2.jpg
An unofficial Tailhook aviator's uniform patch from 1992.
Date:September 8–12, 1991
Place:Las Vegas, Nevada

The Tailhook scandal refers to a series of incidents where more than 100 U.S. Navy and United States Marine Corps aviation officers sexually assaulted 87 women, or otherwise engaged in "improper and indecent" conduct at the Las Vegas Hilton in Las Vegas, Nevada. The events took place at the 35th Annual Tailhook Association Symposium from September 8–12, 1991. The term can also refer to the resulting investigations conducted by the United States Navy (USN) and United States Department of Defense.

As a result of the subsequent investigations, a number of officers were formally disciplined or refused advancement in rank. Controversially, military officers and observers have alleged that flag officers attending the symposium were not held accountable for knowingly allowing the behavior in question to occur. Observers noted that the scandal highlighted the US military culture's attitude and treatment towards women in the areas of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and equal treatment of women in career advancement and opportunity.

Incident

In September 1991, the 35th annual symposium in Las Vegas featured a two-day debrief on Navy and Marine Corps aviation in Operation Desert Storm. It was the largest such meeting yet held, with some 4,000 attendees: active, reserve, and retired personnel.

After his return to the USS Midway, in port in Seattle for Seafair, then Tailhook president CAPT Rick Ludwig pulled all Air Wing CO's, staff, and Flag Staff officers and debriefed them on initial reports of misbehavior and incidents of fisticuffs in the hallways and on the patio by the pool.

According to a Department of Defense (DoD) report, 83 women and 7 men stated that they had been victims of sexual assault and harassment during the meeting. Several participants later stated that a number of flag officers attending the meetings were aware of the sexual assaults, but did nothing to stop them.[1]

On October 29, 1991, the Department of the Navy terminated all ties to the Tailhook Association. Ties were not restored with the Navy until January 19, 1999.[2]

The issues were never quite settled, and as late as 2002, the Tailhook chairman spoke of "the alleged misconduct that occurred in 1991".[3] For several years after Tailhook '91 Promotion board results were delayed while a special review was conducted to ensure that any person with an adverse connection to Tailhook '91 was not promoted.

Investigation and aftermath

In response to media reports about the Las Vegas Tailhook Association meetings, the United States Department of the Navy launched an investigation, led by Naval Investigative Service under the command of Rear Admiral Duvall M. Williams, Jr. This group initially released a report which concluded that the incident was mainly the fault of low-ranked enlisted men behaving poorly.

Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) Barbara S. Pope refused to accept the results of this investigation, especially after Rear Admiral Williams, made sexist remarks in Pope's presence, most notably a comment that he believed that "a lot of female Navy pilots are go-go dancers, topless dancers or hookers".[4] When Admiral Williams issued his final report, finding that no senior Navy officials bore responsibility for what occurred in Las Vegas, Pope went to United States Secretary of the Navy Henry L. Garrett III and told him that she would resign if the United States Department of the Navy did not "do another report and look at what we needed to do about accountability and responsibility and the larger issues at hand."[5] Garrett agreed with Pope, and a further investigation was conducted, headed by Derek J. Vander Schaaf, the Inspector General of the United States Department of Defense.

Vander Schaaf's report was ultimately released in September 1992 by Acting Secretary of the Navy Sean O'Keefe. The release of Vander Schaaf's report led to the resignation of Admiral Williams, and his superior, Rear Adm. John E. Gordon, the Judge Advocate General of the Navy, for their failure to conduct a thorough investigation into the Tailhook allegations.[6]

Frontline on PBS reported:

Ultimately the careers of fourteen admirals and almost 300 naval aviators were scuttled or damaged by Tailhook. For example Secretary of the Navy H. Lawrence Garrett III and CNO Admiral Frank Kelso were both at Tailhook '91. Garrett ultimately resigned and Kelso retired early two years after the convention.[7] Vice Admiral Richard Dunleavy, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Air Warfare, was demoted to a two-star Admiral (from a three-star Admiral) and retired because of the scandal.[8]

In the wake of Vander Schaaf's report, the Naval Investigative Service was reorganized as the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

Author Jean Zimmerman developed the thesis that the scandal underscored the shifting status of women in the military and particularly the role of women in combat.[9]

The controversy was dramatized in the 1995 TV film She Stood Alone: The Tailhook Scandal.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ Thompson II, Charles C. (1999). A Glimpse of Hell: The Explosion on the USS Iowa and Its Cover-Up. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 379–380. ISBN 0393047148. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ http://www.wisegeek.com/what-was-the-tailhook-scandal.htm
  3. ^ RADM Frederick L. Lewis, USN (Ret). "From the Chairman: Tailhook Association At Your Service". The Tailhook Association. Retrieved 2007-08-13.
  4. ^ Healy, Melissa (September 25, 1992). "Pentagon Blasts Tailhook Probe, Two Admirals Resign". Los Angeles Times. Washington.
  5. ^ William H. McMichael, The Mother of All Hooks: The Story of the U.S. Navy's Tailhook Scandal (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1997), p. 273.
  6. ^ Healy, Melissa (September 25, 1992). "Pentagon Blasts Tailhook Probe, Two Admirals Resign". Los Angeles Times. Washington.
  7. ^ "Post Tailhook Punishment". Frontline, PBS. Retrieved 2007-08-13.
  8. ^ Lewis, Neil (October 15, 1993). "Tailhook Affair Brings Censure Of 3 Admirals". New York Times. Washington.
  9. ^ Zimmerman
  10. ^ http://www.reelzchannel.com/movie/164314/she-stood-alone-the-tailhook-scandal/

Further reading

  • McMichael, William (1997). The Mother of All Hooks: The Story of the U. S. Navy's Tailhook Scandal. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 156000293X. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Office of the Inspector General, United States Department of Defense (1993). The Tailhook Report. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-10392-8. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Vistica, Gregory (1997). Fall From Glory: The Men Who Sank the U.S. Navy. Touchstone. ISBN 0684832267. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • Zimmerman, Jean (1995). Tailspin. Doubleday. ISBN 0385477899. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
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