From: nyt%nyxfer%igc.apc.org@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu (NY Transfer News)
Subject: TailHook Scandal reveals sexism in military /ww
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: The NY Transfer News Service
Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 18:16:52 GMT

Tailhook scandal reveals women-hating pervasive in brass

By Naomi Cohen

Sexual abuse and women-hating attitudes were revealed to be
pervasive among top officers of the U.S. military as another
report on the Tailhook Association Convention was released Sept.
24.

Tailhook is an association of Navy officers that holds a yearly
convention that is infamous for its drunken, degrading treatment
of women.

The report, in addition to confirming that at least 26 women were
sexually assaulted in the Tailhook Association convention in
September 1991, reveals that the very Navy officers put in charge
of investigating the incident worked instead to cover it up and
protect the top brass involved.

In releasing the new Pentagon report on the Tailhook incident,
Acting Secretary of the Navy Sean O'Keefe was forced to fire Adm.
Duvall Williams, the commander in charge of the Naval
Investigative Service, and Rear Adm. John Gordon, the Navy's
Judge Advocate General. Another officer, Rear Adm. George Davis,
the Naval Inspector General, will be relieved of his duties and
reassigned.

The original investigation was begun when Navy Lt. Paula Coughlin
filed a complaint after she was sexually assaulted, along with
dozens of other women, at the convention last year. It was clear
from the beginning that the Navy officers in charge of the
investigation were interested only in covering up the facts and
protecting the officers involved. Last June, Lt. Coughlin went
public with her charges, and two days later the Secretary of the
Navy, Lawrence Garrett, was forced to resign when several
witnesses placed him in the so-called "hospitality suites" where
the assaults were taking place.

However, Adm. Williams, who was supposed to be in charge of the
investigation, continued to try to cover up what had happened and
close the books on the incident. The Pentagon was then forced to
open up a new investigation. The report just released reveals
that Williams was involved in a screaming argument with Assistant
Navy Secretary Barbara Pope who was assigned to the
investigation. According to the report, he said women did not
belong in the military and compared female Navy pilots to "go-go
dancers, topless dancers or hookers."

Williams also told a female investigator that because Lt.
Coughlin had cursed at her attackers, "Any woman that would use
the F-word on a regular basis would welcome that type of
activity." This is typical of the much-used male justification
for rape--"the woman asked for it."

The revelations about the Tailhook investigation come at the same
time that more and more gay and lesbian members of the military
are challenging their oppression as well. And the Pentagon
continues to dismiss gay members of the military, even in the
face of mounting protests against such discrimination.

While the Pentagon is trying to portray the latest investigation
as proof that the military finally does "get it" in relation to
women, the overwhelming evidence points the other way. Just last
summer, a number of women who were mobilized to participate in
the war against Iraq testified before Congress that they had been
raped and sexually abused in the course of their military duty.
Not one of them got a serious hearing from the military brass.
Each one of the women who was assaulted testified that their
complaints were ignored or suppressed.

Bigotry against women and gay people, as well as racism and
backwardness on all social questions, is pervasive in the U.S.
military not just because of individual attitudes. The military
establishment keeps the U.S. armed forces as an instrument of
suppression of oppressed people both at home and abroad. Backward
attitudes are instilled by the top officer caste and flow from
this very function. Sometimes the military is forced to lift the
lid on some of its ugly practices and make some personnel
changes, but until the imperialist military is abolished, sexism,
homophobia and racism will be an integral part of the
institution.

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World,46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; "workers@mcimail.com".)


     The N.Y. Transfer News Service 718-448-2358, 718-448-2683
 nyxfer@panix.com * All the news that doesn't fit * nytransfer@igc.org
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive