Originally Posted by brickhistory
apparently the USN lost a future great CNO after some very politically correct members of Congress made the Navy pull from the rear admiral's promotion list, an officer who was simply at the event.
Congress refused to confirm any further promotions for the Navy until they did so.
It was mostly Congress which fanned the flames on this issue. Naval leadership played a part by lack of oversight and a mediocre attempt to cover up problem areas.
To fullly understand Tailhook, one has to understand the times.
As you'd expect from a bunch of testosterone and adrenaline-fueled, aggressive, type-A personalities who have an annual party away from home, each new year brought the opportunity to outdo the last. This is a natural evolution which wiser and more experienced leadership should have kept an eye upon. Instead, they turned a blind eye and let boys be boys. Mix this with a Congress which saw integrating women into the military along the same lines as desegregating the military in 1948. Transitions are always difficult. While this transition was an excellent idea, the forced nature of having Congress jam it down the military's throats caused problems.
Without going into too much detail, part of the problem was the American culture itself. Another was the inclusion of people who weren't necessarily military material. Another, and the main one in my opinion, was an unreasonable timetable and expectation by certain Senators and Congressional Representatives who latched onto the sexual integration of the military as a reelection tool instead of looking after the best interests of the nation.
One side note is that Lt. Paula Coughlin, the main officer who filed a claim of harassment, contributed to the lusty activities by participating in a leg-shaving contest the night before her "assualt". On the night of her complaint she was sober and on duty. While attempting to carry out some orders, she had to pass through the party floor (fourth floor?) and several fellow but drunken Naval officers fondled her breasts as she tried to get by them. She was pissed and I don't blame her.
What should never have happened due to a failure of leadership then should never have been more than the repremands on the offending officers. Instead of responding to her complaints about being grabbed and fondled, Lt. Coughlin was basically told to get over it. This angered her and she bumped it up the chain until the politicians got ahold of it and we know the results.
Another outcome of the political nature of Tailhook was the death of Lieutenant Kara S. Hultgreen, a pilot who should never have been put into the position she was except out of political necessity to make up for the lapses committed by Naval leadership at Tailhook '91. If both the Naval leadership and Washington politicians had both properly done their jobs plus put the needs of the country first, Lt. Hultgreen wouldn't have died and our nation would be short one F-14 and a crew.