Navy Official

The Navy's inspector general is expected to turn over to Naval Academy officials as early as Friday the names of 125 midshipmen implicated in the largest cheating scandal in the school's history.Sources familiar with the inspector general's investigation said the report will not conclude the guilt or innocence of midshipmen involved in the theft and distribution of an electrical engineering final in December 1992, but will provide individual files on those investigated."They will say these are the facts," said a senior Navy official who requested anonymity.

WASHINGTON -- Fearful of angering the public, senior Navy officials tried to alter the language of a report concerning the assault of 26 women at a convention of naval aviators last year, apparently to make the incidents seem less offensive, Pentagon officials say.The office of the naval inspector general prevailed in keeping most of the original wording in the report, but only after contentious debates with superiors, Navy officials said.Its inquiry was one of two by Navy agencies into the events and subsequent cover-up at last year's convention in Las Vegas of the Tailhook Association, a group of active-duty and retired naval aviators.

The Navy has known for more than 20 months that its new Super Hornet fighter jet has a vexing problem with its wing, but did not notify Pentagon decision-makers until after they made a commitment last spring to start buying the plane.A Navy official said the scope of the potentially major problem was not apparent in March when the Pentagon agreed to buy an initial dozen of the $70 million plane -- a decision widely seen as giving the Super Hornet an advantage over other costly jet programs jockeying for money from Congress.

WASHINGTON -- Seeking to reverse long-standing policies that relegate women to second-class status, the Navy has asked the Clinton administration to open the first military combat assignments to women in the next few months, senior defense officials said yesterday.The Navy plan would allow women to serve aboard at least six classes of combat support ships, but not on larger combatants such as aircraft carriers, cruisers or submarines.Although one official familiar with the details called the plan a "modest" first step, he said the Navy has already readied additional proposals to open all other naval combat jobs -- including duty on aircraft carriers, submarines and fighter squadrons -- to women within four years.

WASHINGTON -- Defense Department officials are proposing to trim the production schedule of two new fighter aircraft -- the FA-18 E/F Super Hornet and the F-22 Raptor -- to save money for other weapons, Pentagon sources said yesterday.The production rate for the Navy's FA-18 E/F, which accounts for about 400 high-paying engineering and scientific jobs in Maryland, could slow by more than a dozen planes per year over the coming years, the sources said.The Maryland jobs are not at risk, one Navy official said, because they are tied to a testing program at Patuxent River Naval Air Station that will continue for two more years regardless of the number of airplanes built.

A Naval Academy senior found guilty of inappropriate contact with at least three women, including a former freshman who had accused him of rape, has been expelled from the military college. Robert A. Curcio, 24, whose case drew unflattering attention to the academy's handling of reports of sexual misconduct, will likely be required to pay the Navy about $120,000 or serve three years as an enlisted sailor as reimbursement for his taxpayer-funded tuition. His mother, Lourdes Curcio, said in an interview that her son returned to his hometown of Antioch, Calif.

Officials at the Naval Academy said yesterday that none of the institution's 33 intercollegiate sports will be cut, despite reports that led a Senate panel to hold back a portion of the institution's annual budget.According to The Washington Post, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to withhold $5 million of the Naval Academy's $115 budget after hearing that certain lesser sports would be eliminated at the conclusion of an academy review of the sports program. The sports reportedly on the block would be men's and women's fencing, men's and women's volleyball and women's track and field, and the panel has indicated it will withhold the money until it is assured the sports will not be cut.Rear Adm. Virgil L. Hill Jr., the Naval Academy superintendent, said yesterday through an academy spokesman that all sports will remain intact.

SAN DIEGO - The acting secretary of the Navy said yesterday that he believes it would hurt morale if Cmdr. Scott Waddle is court-martialed for the deadly collision between his submarine and a Japanese fishing trawler. Robert B. Pirie Jr., a former submarine captain, said he will support Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander of the Pacific Fleet, if Fargo decides that a court-martial is required for Waddle or other crew members aboard the USS Greeneville. But Pirie, speaking to reporters aboard the 3rd Fleet command ship USS Coronado, said he expects Fargo to consider such big-picture factors as morale before making his decision.

Officials from Anne Arundel County and the Navy are at odds over how much the military should pay for nearly $1 million in maintenance work at the former David Taylor Research Center. The Navy has agreed to pay $15,000, but government officials say the county is seeking substantially more - leading to another complication in the long-planned and frequently delayed redevelopment of the shuttered base. "We're working on it," Jerome W. Klasmeier, special projects coordinator for County Executive Janet S. Owens, said yesterday, referring to the roughly $555,000 in overdue payments owed to Harza Engineering Co. for its work last year at the base.

NEW YORK - Alleged dirty bomb plotter Jose Padilla conferred with his attorneys for more than two hours yesterday, the first meeting the former Chicago gang member has had with them since he was declared an enemy combatant nearly two years ago. But, unlike conventional attorney-client sessions, the meeting at the naval brig in Charleston, S.C., was monitored and recorded by Navy officials. Because of that, Donna Newman and Andrew Patel, Padilla's court-appointed attorneys, said they did not discuss the details of the government's claim that the Muslim convert was plotting to explode a radioactive device when he was arrested in May 2002 at O'Hare International Airport.