The Tailhook Legacy
There is a lot going on in this issue of Proceedings. First let's deal with the 800-pound gorilla, the story that many of you may feel doesn't belong in this magazine.
"Damned if You Do, Damned if You Don't" is, in part, a chronicle of the sexual misconduct case that revolved around Lamar Owens, the great Navy quarterback of recent seasons. The Owens case, for reasons detailed in the story, split the Naval Academy community in ways rarely if ever seen. But much more was at play, and it goes well beyond Owens and the Academy. To this day, as the story by Bradley Olson amply demonstrates, the military still finds itself unable to deal in a consistent and credible manner with sexual misconduct in all its many guises. That's why this tale belongs in Proceedings. The Navy (and the rest of the services) has got to start getting it right.
It's convenient to say that the fear and loathing that attends this issue has its roots in the 1991 Tailhook scandal, a disgraceful episode in which female naval officers were sexually molested, the Navy's officer corps was devastated, the image of a proud service was tarnished, and innumerable distinguished careers were brought to a premature end. But the problem goes back farther than Tailhook, at least to the admission of women to the service academies in 1976. Since then the services have been stumbling all over themselves, alternately lenient and draconian, dancing back and forth along a spectrum that runs from boys-will-be-boys through none-of-my-business to you have the right to remain silent.
Mr. Olson, who has covered the case for the Baltimore Sun from the beginnning, handles a sensational story in a most responsible way, combining fine reporting and careful writing. By itself, though, the Olson story is not enough. We need to know how we got to where we are and how we might pull ourselves out of this seemingly bottomless quagmire. That's provided by Commander Kathleen Duignan, a Reserve Coast Guard JAG who has dealt with an array of sexual harassment cases as both prosecutor and defense attorney. Her article, a companion piece to Mr. Olson's, is titled "Sexual Misconduct—Discretion is the Better Part of Prosecution."
A new Chief of Naval Operations has been named, Admiral Gary Roughead. We introduce him to those of you not familiar with his splendid career in our lead story by, Otto Kreisher, a veteran military correspondent. We wish Admiral Roughead fair winds and following seas as he begins a voyage unlike any he has yet experienced.
This is our Naval Aviation issue, and we are pleased to kick off our special section with a piece by recently retired Admiral John "Black" Nathman and two colleagues—Rebecca Grant and Loren Thompson—that makes a strong case for the continued operational importance of the aircraft carrier.
The section includes a number of other provocative stories. In "Repeating NASA's Deadly Mistakes," Navy Commander Bill Sigler warns that naval air culture is leading the F/A-18 Hornet community down the same path that led NASA to the two space shuttle disasters.
Frequent contributors George Galdorisi and Scott Truver describe what the Navy's "necking down" of its helicopter community means and the risks involved in treating warfighting as a business. And Lieutenant Commander B. W. Stone offers pointed suggestions on how to reduce naval air mishaps.
As we were going to press, we learned of the death of philanthropist Brooke Astor at the age of 105. Mrs. Astor was a good friend of the Naval Institute, endowing the annual Vincent Astor Memorial Leadership Essay Contest, named for her late husband.
Mrs. Astor, a Manhattan socialite and daughter of Major General John Henry Russell Jr., 1892 Naval Academy graduate and 16th Commandant of the Marine Corps, devoted her life to good works after inheriting a fortune on the death of her husband in 1959. Beneficiaries included the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as a homeless shelter lacking a fire escape and a youth center needing a boiler. A remarkable woman who even found her way into a popular Cole Porter tune, we celebrate her generosity to a staggering array of institutions, large and small.