An Officer, Not A Gentleman

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The Navy's bad reputation owes much to a string of highly publicized incidents. In 1987 Pentagon investigators uncovered "morally repugnant behavior" on a Navy salvage ship cruising the western Pacific, which included the captain's performing oral sex on a prostitute in front of his crew. In 1990 a female midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy resigned after she was handcuffed to a urinal by male midshipmen. There have also been reports of rapes and sexual assaults.

The Navy's shipboard culture breeds sexism. Once a ship is afloat, the captain is the master of the universe. Women have little choice but to endure insults. It does not help that women are still barred from combat ships, and only 8,800 of the Navy's 58,000 women have landed spots on support ships. Many enlistees argue that the more women are integrated into the service, the less sexism there will be. "Working together is more important than sexual- harassment training," says Senior Chief Radioman Rusanne Anthony. The Navy's officers also need to set a better example. "We haven't had leaders who modeled the proper behavior," says Kay Krohne, a retired Navy commander. "We have officers who pay lip service, then pinch their secretary's butt."

Just as the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings made women recall their own tales of sexism, so has the Tailhook scandal made females in uniform question their handling of aberrant behavior in the past. One Air Force captain recalls overlooking a minor incident years back. The man got promoted and continued to bother other women. Now she thinks maybe she should have made a little noise. An Air Force staff sergeant recalls a military doctor who used to pat the buttocks and breasts of many female patients, regardless of their ailment. As for the men, they stand divided. One Navy ensign has little sympathy. "A lot of women," he says, "bring it on themselves." Air Force Sergeant Bradley Ahrensfield, on the other hand, says there is "no excuse" for such behavior. Officially at least, every man in the Navy better adopt that attitude if he wants to keep his job.