Navy Probing Incident During Miramar Party

SAN DIEGO — A senior naval aviator and the commander of an F-14 squadron at Miramar Naval Air Station have been temporarily reassigned pending an investigation into a sign unfurled two weeks ago at a fighter-pilot party at the base Officer’s Club, the Navy said late Wednesday.

Capt. Richard Braden, the No. 2 man at the Navy wing that oversees fighter aircraft in the Pacific Fleet, and Cmdr. Dave Tyler, commanding officer of Fighter Squadron 51, were reassigned Wednesday, sources said.

The Navy said a female patron at the club saw an “offensive” sign during the “Tomcat Follies” party June 18, an annual event during which various Miramar-based F-14 squadrons put on skits.

The Fighter Squadron 51 skit included a sign that referred to Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) and made a “sexual” reference, sources said. “It wasn’t the f-word,” a source said, declining to elaborate. Braden was the senior officer in attendance, sources said.

Word of the investigation was disclosed a few hours after the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday approved 1,126 Navy and Marine Corps promotions that had been held up by an investigation into the Tailhook sex scandal.

At the September, 1991, meeting of the Tailhook Assn., a Bonita-based naval aviation booster group, at least 26 women said they were groped and fondled while being pushed through a gantlet of drunken aviators in a Las Vegas hotel hallway. Half the women were Navy officers.

Meanwhile, a second new incident also came to light Wednesday, involving a small number of Army personnel who allegedly videotaped several enlisted men and an enlisted woman having sex.

Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, asked Defense Department officials to report to the panel about that incident, and about the sign unfurled at Miramar.

The Pentagon inspector general is conducting an independent inquiry into the Tailhook scandal and the way the Navy has handled its own investigation of the incident. The Navy has said about 70 officers could be implicated.

Initial Navy inquiries implicated only two men, though 1,500 people were interviewed. The Navy investigator said some senior officers refused to allow their men to be photographed, or otherwise obstructed the probe.

The Tailhook Assn., named for the hook that snags planes landing on aircraft carriers, announced June 16 that it was canceling the 1992 convention planned for San Diego. Strippers and pornographic movies had become common at the yearly convention.

Until three or four years ago, it was common for female strippers to attend the “Tailhook Follies,” the annual F-14 squadron skit night at Miramar, sources said. No nude dancing is supposed to take place there now, though it is still not unusual for the event to turn raunchy, sources said.

The Navy said a woman who attended the June 18 event sent a letter that characterized the sign as “offensive,” to Adm. Frank B. Kelso, chief of Navy operations. The Navy declined to disclose any other details about the woman.

Kelso, the Navy’s senior officer, directed Adm. R.J. Kelly, the Pacific Fleet commander based in Honolulu, to investigate the woman’s complaint.

Braden had been serving as chief of staff at the Pacific Fleet’s Fighter Airborne Early Warning Wing, the senior command at Miramar, with overall responsibility for its F-14 fighters and E-2 Hawkeyes. The E-2 serves as an air traffic controller in the sky.

Tyler was one of the 14 F-14 squadron commanders at Miramar. There are five E-2 squadrons at the base.

During the investigation, Braden and Tyler have been assigned to the staff of Vice Adm. Edwin R. Kohn, the commander of the Naval Air Force in the Pacific, the Navy said. Neither Braden nor Tyler could be reached Wednesday night for comment.

Based at North Island Naval Air Station, Kohn is responsible for all Navy air units in the Pacific, including aircraft carriers and air stations.