Navy Secretary

WASHINGTON -- Navy Secretary John H. Dalton has asked for the removal of the Navy's top officer, Adm. Frank B. Kelso II, for failing to show proper leadership at a convention of naval aviators in Las Vegas where scores of women were assaulted, Pentagon officials said last night.In a sweeping indictment of senior Navy leadership, Mr. Dalton has also notified Defense Secretary Les Aspin that he will seek disciplinary action against 12 other admirals and Marine generals who attended the 1991 Tailhook Association convention, damaging if not effectively ending their naval careers.

WASHINGTON -- In a blistering critique of the Navy's inquiry into sexual assaults at an aviators' convention last year, a Pentagon report made public yesterday says that senior Navy officials deliberately undermined their own investigation to avoid negative publicity.Moreover, the report said, some admirals sabotaged their agents' efforts because of their own hostility toward women. It is the first time the Pentagon has directly accused senior Navy officials of suppressing their own investigation into the assault of at least 26 women, including 14 officers, at the Tailhook Association convention in Las Vegas.

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.

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Beverly B. Byron of Maryland, a seven-term lawmaker who was defeated in the March primary, is one of several women being considered as a replacement to outgoing Navy Secretary H. Lawrence Garrett III.Mrs. Byron, 59, a conservative Democrat and Armed Services Committee member, is being pushed for the top Navy job by Rep. Helen Delich Bentley, a Baltimore County Republican, according to a senior White House official.The official, who termed Mrs. Byron's chances "possible," said that besides the Frederick Democrat's pro-defense views, her gender is also a plus.

WASHINGTON -- Navy Secretary H. Lawrence Garrett III resigned yesterday amid questions about his involvement in a scandal over the assault on 26 women, including 14 female officers, at a convention of naval aviators last year.The Navy secretary, who attended the convention but said he saw no misconduct, had come under growing criticism from Congress in recent days for the Navy's handling of the inquiry, which Mr. Garrett last week turned over to the Defense Department inspector general.Mr.

WASHINGTON -- On a warm Saturday night last September, Navy Secretary H. Lawrence Garrett III chatted with Navy pilots on a patio outside the Las Vegas Hilton, where military aviators, flush from their victory in the Persian Gulf, were celebrating at a three-day convention.Just inside, hundreds of officers -- lured by the prospect of free drinks, free food and a chance to share war stories with old buddies -- roamed the third-floor "hospitality suites" rented by aircraft squadrons.Strippers and scantily clad bartenders worked the 20 suites, where Navy and Marine Corps pilots watched pornographic movies.