Tailhook

"The events that took place in the 1970’s to the 1990’s, at the Navy and Marine pilots convention known as Tailhook, are among the most public examples of sexual abuse in a military setting. The convention, named after the device that assists airplanes landing on short runways, began in 1956 as a low-key affair but became progressively more rowdy with each passing year. In 1962, the town of San Diego got sick of the antics and banned the event, so it was moved to Las Vegas, where breaking a waitress’s leg while attempting to toss her into a swimming pool and dropping a piano from the fifteenth story of a hotel were accepted as good-natured fun. Another custom that became a routine part of the convention was “ball walking,” which involved letting one’s scrotum hang out of one’s pants while strolling around the convention site. By 1985 the practice of ball walking had become such a popular practice that T-shirts which read, “HANG ‘EM IF YOU GOT ‘EM” were sold on site. When word of this became public, it was justified as a military “custom.” In the Civilian world a man walking around a hotel with genitals exposed is a criminal act known as exhibitionism.

"Senior officers were aware of what took place at Tailhook because they themselves were in attendance and responsible for some of the stranger acts. Vice Admiral Jack Ready was happy to demonstrate his ability to drink a beer while standing on his head. Admiral Bear Taylor showed up to the convention dressed as a Civil War general, complete with a horse, which he rode into the hotel. John Francis Lehman Jr., no less that Secretary of the Navy, liked to have a naked stripper dance over him as he lay on the floor, while other attendees cheered him on. With role models such as these, attendees began to think they were entitled to do whatever they wanted, and the citizens of America ought to fund it as well. The aviators who were not within driving distance were flown there on military transports, or flew “their” F-14s or A-6s  to the event. The military’s estimate of the cost of fuel, maintenance, and wear and tear on planes of this type is $3,00 per hour. Some pilots few government planes all the way from the East Coast to the convention. In addition to flying the taxpayers’ planes to the event, many of the officers were also drawing a per diem, so that U.S. taxpayers not only funded their partying but also paid the officers while they partied.

"Even commanders who did not personally attend the convention knew what took place, because military newspapers published yearly summaries of the events. in 1990 a base newspaper reported that none of the officers who had attended “were convicted of any crimes, felonies, that is.” The article wen on to describe the convention as “characterized by celebration, joviality, and debauchery.” In one suite alone, fifteen cases of liquor, forty kegs of beer, and 450 gallons of margaritas containing 315 gallons liters of tequila were consumed.
Most Americans had never heard of the Tailhook Association until 1991, when Las Vegas did not live up to its motto, “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” The incidents that took place at Tailhook that year were no different than those of others [sic] years, except that they became public knowledge.
As in previous years, the third floor hallway was the site of ‘the Gauntlet,’ where male officers lined both sides of the hall waiting for a woman to approach, then two male officers would get behind her to prevent her from escaping once the men began grabbing her breasts and crotch and attempting to remove her clothing/ Hotel security had learned from pas experience to protect their female security personnel by keeping them off the notorious third floor. Other women were not so fortunate. By the time this convention was over, at least eighty-three women had been sexually assaulted. Many of the women made it clear they did not welcome such treatment by screaming, kicking, and punching. Since some of the officers had their penises exposed, the women thought they were about to be gang raped. The female victims included civilians, Naval and Air Force officers, government officials, spouses of military personnel, and a teenage girl who was provided with enough liquor that she passed out. She was stripped naked, lifted into the air, and passed down the line from officer to officer to be fondled before being left on the floor in a semiconscious state. Seven men were also sexually assaulted.

"After it was all over, the President of the Tailhook Association, Captain Rick Ludwig, sent a letter to the members noting the convention was “the most successful” and senior leadership had been “thoroughly impressed and immensely enjoyed their time.” He did mention “five separate reports of young ladies, several of whom had nothing to do with Tailhook,” had been, “verbally abused, had drinks thrown on the, were physically abused, and were sexually molested.” When word of this letter became public, Naval officer Lawrence Garrett, stated, “No man who holds a commission in this Navy will ever subject a woman to the kind of abuse in evidence that Tailhook ‘91 with impunity.” Sean O’Keefe, another Naval officer, held a press conference and announced, “Sex [sic] harassment will not be tolerated, and those who don’t get the message will be driven from our ranks.” President George H. Bush invited Lieutenant Paula Coughlin, one of the women assaulted, to dinner in the white house and assured her that justice would be done. A task force was formed to investigate the matter and met twenty-one times over a five-month period.

"Over one million dollars was spent to question more than 1,500 officers of the 5,000 who had attended the convention. However, the Secretary of the Navy, Lawrence Garrett, Vice Admiral Richard Dunleavy, the Chief of Naval Aviation, and the seventy-one admirals who attended the convention were not interviewed. The Inspector General, George Davis, attempted to interview these high-ranking personnel but was told by higher-ups that such questioning would not be useful to the investigation. A several-hundred-page report was released indicating was there enough evidence to file charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for crimes that included conduct unbecoming an [sic] officer,  indecent exposure, indecent assaults, making false statements to investigators (lying), a obstruction of justice. Naval Judge Captain William Vest Jr. noted the Admiral Frank Delso had lied under oath and manipulated the investigations so as to “shield his own personal involvement in Tailhook ‘91.” The Admiral’s punishment was to retire two months earlier than he had planned. Despite having enough evidence to charge over 300 officers with crimes, the only seventy were recommended for disciplinary action. All but one were junior officers. No high-ranking personnel were held accountable. Higher-ups insisted that, even though Captain Rick Ludwif, the President of the Tailhook Association, who had written the letter after the convention, was not the senior officer in attendance, he ought to be held accountable for any misbehavior that took place. He was so distressd by the way his comrades ostracized him that he eneded up in a psychiatric hospital.
After two years, the Navy and the Department of Defense and completed a total of seen investigations that cost U.S. taxpayers three million dollars . The Marines who had been charged with crimes were cleared or given nonjudicial punishments. Of the 120 Naval personnel charged, 50 percent of the cases were thrown out for lack of evidence, and most of the rest resulted in a letter of caution and forfeiture of pay. Despite the lack of any meaningful action taken, Admiral Frank Kelso went to far as to claim, “Something like Tailhook is not going to happen again. Tailhook also brought to light the fact that we had an institutional problem in how we treated women.” He spoke in the past tense, as if change had taken place. He was being far too optimistic. Institutional change had not taken place and sexual abuse would continue in the Navy and the rest of the armed forces."

- Dr. Mic Hunter, Sexual Abuse in America's Military