Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: No big scandal in Sparks

Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2000 | 9:26 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

If it had been some civic, political or social convention there wouldn't have been a ripple in the media. It wasn't, so the Reno Gazette-Journal's front-page headline read: "Tailhook charge reported in Sparks." The Las Vegas Sun's front-page headline was "Navy may again drop Tailhook" and the Review-Journal's headline was "Navy looks into Tailhook claims." The Los Angeles Times did about the same thing on Page 3.

I've talked to several people who attended this year's Tailhook convention in Northern Nevada, and all of them had nothing but praise for the young aviators attending the affair. Furthermore, all of them talked about the Navy briefings and valuable exchange of information that took place. "It was rewarding to see the young and old pilots from carriers talking about their experiences," a Henderson Tailhook member remarked.

The men I interviewed have flown combat missions from aircraft carriers during the wars in Korea and Vietnam. One of them spent several years as a POW after being shot down over Vietnam. All of them have been successful businessmen, commercial pilots and public servants since leaving the military.

"Here we go again," was the attitude of the Nevadans who attended the Tailhook gathering in Sparks. None of them saw or heard anybody out of line, but if there were any problems they weren't of major proportions. If it hadn't been Tailhook there wouldn't have been any big story coming out of Sparks. It certainly couldn't be compared to anything even close to the flap caused in the Las Vegas Hilton in 1991.

Carl Weikel, publisher of "End of the Line Chronicles" in Searchlight, attended and writes:

"This year's Tailhook Convention was the first held, with the Navy's blessing, since the debacle of 1991. Since the organization has been duly blessed, it meant that the young naval aviators could once again attend without it being a career-ending event. It also meant that the flag officers of the Navy could return as well." He found the story coming out in the press as being questionable. All of the people I quizzed about it expressed concern that the secretary of the Navy and Department of Defense might again overreact to the charges.

Stephanie Gutmann, in her popular book "The Kinder, Gentler Military," told readers of the results of the Hilton hotel mess:

"We will probably never know the full financial costs of the Tailhook investigations, but the morale costs and loss of talent have been astronomic. A 1990 damage inventory taken by the Navy Times counted '14 admirals and almost 300 naval aviators' whose careers had been tainted or ended, and 'thousands more' who were affected when officer promotion board results were screened, and officers had to sign papers stating whether they or anyone under their command attended Tailhook '91 and thus should receive 'special evaluation.' An 'event that should have taken at the most a week,' wrote James Webb, had become a permanent state of being and had acquired a 'casualty list which read like a Who's Who of Naval Aviation.' "

The people who attended the affair in Sparks last month haven't forgotten what happened back in 1991. Gutmann refers to what happened at the Hilton also as "something of a milestone in the history of distorted news coverage." She went on to give examples written and reported by both television and newspapers and added: "A number of facts got lost in the reporting: The events were not organized or paid for by the Navy but by a private organization, the Tailhook Association (the name refers to a slender metal bar on the rear of an aircraft that hooks a restraining wire on a carrier deck), whose convention planning committee included female Navy officers. There were three incidents of 'sexual assault' that a reasonable person might consider 'criminal,' not 'dozens and dozens,' as the New York Times once reported. Last but not least: Hundreds of women guests a nd a sprinkling of female officers held up their end quite respectably in the 'drunkenness, debauchery, and vulgarity' depa! rtment."

The aviators and their friends attending Tailhook this year hope the same errors aren't again perpetrated by the nation's press and the Department of Defense.