SECTION Vl INDECENT ASSAULTS A. Gauntlet Our investigation disclosed that the word "gauntlet," as applied in the context of Tailhook 91, was variously interpreted by the many people we interviewed. Some officers strongly disputed or denied even the existence of a gauntlet. One Navy lieutenant, for example, told us he thought the gauntlet was a "figment of someone's imagination" and he could not believe that a hundred guys would just stand around and allow someone to be assaulted. Other officers said they believed the gauntlet and Tailhook-related problems were created by the media. One Navy lieutenant simply asserted that "there is no such thing as the gauntlet." Another officer, a longstanding member of the Tailhook Association who attended numerous Tailhook conventions, said the gauntlet, as described in media reports as an organized effort by naval officers to grope females, "unequivocally does not exist." 0thers told us the gauntlet existed, but did not involve assaultive behavior. Those witnesses defined the gauntlet as a very crowded hallway where people were drinking and socializing and where it was difficult to move without having drinks spilled on oneself. Yet others reported that the gauntlet consisted of "drunk" and "obnoxious" junior officers who pushed and shoved each other and anyone else in the hallway. Some described the gauntlet as a bunch of drunken male aviators who yelled catcalls, insults and suggestive remarks to women as they passed through the hallway. Many people told us they understood the gauntlet to be a Tailhook tradition in which women willingly walked through columns of drunken aviators and were fondled, grabbed, groped, pinched or otherwise consensually touched. Numerous others told us the gauntlet involved uninvited, assaultive behavior against unsuspecting women entering the third floor hallway. Many of the witnesses and victims said they were alarmed and disturbed by the severity of the indecent assaults they either witnessed or had been subjected to at Tailhook 91. Finally, a substantial number of people we interviewed said that, although they had never heard the word gauntlet used in the context of the Tailhook conventions, they had observed assaultive behavior in the third floor hallway at Tailhook 91 and earlier Tailhook conventions. Our investigation confirmed that the gauntlet did indeed exist and at one time or another involved all of the behaviors described above. Based on the reports and descriptions we received, we found that the "gauntlet" evolved over the years from somewhat innocuous nonassaultive behavior to the assaultive acts that occurred in recent years. The gauntlet existed in some form for many years and was well known within the naval aviation community. Literally hundreds of witnesses reported they either witnessed or were aware of behavior at past Tailhook conventions consistent with the descriptions of the gauntlet at Tailhook 91. Some of those people specifically referred to the gauntlet by name, while others simply described unruly behavior in the hallway. A Navy lieutenant who attended Tailhook for the first time in 1991 told us that while in the third floor hallway he observed a crowd of men yelling and pinching women on the buttocks. A senior officer standing nearby told him that the activity was an "old Navy tradition called the gauntlet." A Marine Corps captain told us that participants at prior Tailhooks consisted of junior and senior officers, but a higher percentage of junior officers were involved. The same officer said the presence of senior officers did not inhibit the gauntlet activity. A former Tailhook Association representative said that although he first heard the term gauntlet applied to Tailhook in media reports following Tailhook 91, he had observed and taken part in that type of behavior at Tailhook conventions 15 years earlier. He likened the yells of male aviators lining the hallway to construction worker catcalls at passing women. The earliest reported use of the term gauntlet in the context of Tailhook came from a Navy commander who said he heard the term in the early 1980's. He defined the gauntlet at that time as being a hallway filled with drunken officers who had overflowed into the hallway from the hospitality suites. The commander said that in the early 1980's there was no groping or indecent assault connotation to the gauntlet. A number of other naval officers provided similar descriptions of the gauntlet during Tailhook conventions through the early 1980's. One officer thought the practice started in 1983 but was not termed a gauntlet until 1986. Regardless of when the term gauntlet was first applied to behavior at Tailhook, it is clear from the many interviews that the nature of the hallway activity changed over the years. Descriptions of early Tailhook conventions included aviators drinking and singing, standing against the wall and "cheering" as women walked through the most crowded parts of the hallway. There were also accounts that as women walked through the hallway, officers would call out ratings as to the women's attractiveness. Witnesses said that type of activity later changed to "horse-play" with aviators pushing, shoving and throwing beer on one another. By most accounts, there were few women in attendance at earlier conventions. According to most descriptions, Tailhook conventions in earlier years were largely "stag" affairs. Reportedly, "unwritten" rules prohibited officers from bringing spouses or cameras to Tailhook. There are also reports that during earlier years, a large proportion of the women attending Tailhook conventions could be described as prostitutes or "groupies." However, in recent years, the number of women attendees, both in terms of female naval officers and the wives of male officers, increased. The nature of the gauntlet activities apparently changed some time in the mid to late 1980's when the gauntlet started to involve males touching women who walked through the hallway. Some witnesses suggested this was a progression from the cheering, catcalls and ratings of women typical of earlier Tailhook conventions, to more physical contact in which officers would pinch and grab women's breasts, buttocks and crotch areas as the women attempted to traverse the hallway. The descriptions suggested that, initially, touching was consensual and that the women involved were aware and tolerant of the consequences of walking through a hallway lined with drunken male aviators. Some accounts of prior Tailhook conventions described the women touching and grabbing the men in response to the men's actions. Descriptions of the gauntlet in the mid to late 1980's also included reports of women being passed overhead down the hallway, similar to a type of activity seen at some high school or college football games. Witnesses reported they heard men in the hallway calling out "clear deck," Òfoul deck," "wave off' and "bolter." Those terms are normally associated with aircraft landings on carriers. Reportedly, the term "clear deck" was used as a signal to gauntlet participants that an attractive female was approaching. On the other hand, the terms "wave off," "foul deck" and "bolter" signaled the approach of unappealing females, senior naval officers or security personnel. Other activities associated with the gauntlet included men pounding on the walls and repeatedly chanting "gauntlet" as they anticipated the approach of women in the hallway. Chanting and yelling has apparently been part of gauntlet activity for a long time. Some others reported chanting at Tailhook 91 or earlier Tailhook conventions included "abort, abort," used in the same context as "wave off" or "bolter." A few witnesses reported that the words "attitude," "bring back the bitch" and similar phrases were used whenever women showed anger at being subjected to the gauntlet. Our investigation disclosed that gauntlet-related indecent assaults dated back to at least Tailhook 88. Ten women reported to us that they were assaulted when they attended Tailhook conventions between 1988 and 1990. The women reported they had been grabbed on the breasts, buttocks and/or crotch area. None of the women are known to have reported their assaults to authorities until after Tailhook 91. A number of male aviators also reported that they witnessed assaults on women at Tailhook conventions in the late 1980's. During that time period, gauntlet participants were first observed acting in an organized fashion and using schemes apparently designed to lure women into the gauntlet. Witnesses told us that, as women approached the gauntlet, officers in the hallway pretended to be merely socializing in small groups. The witnesses described how the men would quiet down and create an opening in the crowd that unsuspecting women might think to use as a passageway. Witnesses went on to describe how women who entered the crowded portion of the hallway would then be suddenly surrounded by the gauntlet participants who groped them and prevented their exit. Perhaps the best description of the gauntlet is contained in the testimony of a Navy commander: Q. During your interview on October 3, 1992, you discussed incidents which occurred on the third floor of the Hilton Hotel late Saturday evening, September 7, after the hours of 2200 [10:00 p.m.]. Could you explain what you witnessed ? You had related an incident, I believe, regarding a woman who had passed through The Gauntlet, and if you could just briefly explain the Gauntlet. A. Okay. My definition of The Gauntlet--it is a term that I've heard used at Tailhook or around Tailhook for several years. And I believe it comes from an old Clint Eastwood movie of the same name, about a street or an avenue that starts wide and narrows into a funnel area that's hard to get through. I think that's where the term "The GauntletÓ originated in regards to Tailhook. And The Gauntlet would be pretty much in progress on late Friday or late Saturday nights, and it would consist of again, my estimate, two to three hundred young people--young men. And that's just my estimate. I can tell you the hallway--probably as long as maybe 30 yards or so--is absolutely packed with bodies. And I would say the majority of them are between 21-to-26-year-old young men, mostly on the lower, probably the 21-to-24-year-olds and mostly, in my judgment, just by the attendance at Tailhook, mostly, young Naval officers, but also Marine officers and some Air Force guys; and I did see some people there in '91 that, by their dress and their hair, were not in the military at all. They were civilians that came from the local areas to attend the party. The group mainly stands out there and drinks and chants and sings songs. And, on the occasion when a female would pass through the area, they would chant or, as it occurred on the late Saturday night, they would grab a girl's butt or breasts, apparently, as she went through. That's, I guess, the best way I can describe The Gauntlet. The third floor east wing hallway of the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel is approximately 6 feet wide, dimly lighted, and somewhat wider in the area of the guest elevators and service area. It narrows as it extends eastward into the suite corridor. By all accounts, the third floor hallway was extremely crowded on Friday and Saturday evenings. Witnesses described the hallway as nearly impassable at times because of the large number of people standing, loitering or attempting to walk through the hallway. The hallway curves from the area of the main guest elevators to that straight section where gauntlet activity took place. Witnesses said that the curvature of the hallway, combined with the crowded conditions, made it very easy for someone to walk well into the third floor hallway before realizing that anything unusual was taking place. (See Figures 7 and 8 - next page) Descriptions provided by most witnesses regarding the location of the gauntlet were generally consistent. The beginning of the gauntlet was frequently described as being in the hallway just beyond the hotel service area as one turned right out of the main guest elevators. The gauntlet started in the area of the HS-10 suite (room 315) and the VS-41 suite (room 304). It extended eastward and ended in the vicinity of the Rhino suite (room 308). Two civilian females and one civilian male described seeing a sign posted on the third floor which read "Gauntlet- Enter at your own risk" or some similar wording. One of the women specifically recalled that the sign was visible in the hallway area immediately on exiting the guest elevators. -42 Witnesses used the analogy of a funnel to describe the mass of people in the gauntlet area. The area nearest the elevators was sparsely populated in comparison to the beginning of the gauntlet, beyond the elevator. The area was described as "...a million people per square inch." The crowd tapered off near the area of the VA-128 and Rhino suites. Several people described the third floor hallway as smelling of spilled beer, vomit and urine at the height of the party on Friday and/or Saturday nights. One Navy squadron XO told us "...the hallway was gross...People--I'm sure they peed in the corners or wherever they happened to be standing, loss of bladder control. They puked there. It was terrible." Others said the hallway carpet was saturated with spilled beer to the point that it "squished" when walked on. Reportedly, the Hilton Hotel replaced or repaired and cleaned the third floor hallway carpeting each year following the Tailhook convention because of the extensive damage. Figure 7. Photograph taken by investigators depicting dimly lit area where Gauntlet took place [unavailable due to graphics limitations] Figure 8. Photograph of third floor hallway as taken by investigators. Picture depicts view from main elevators [unavailable due to graphics limitations] The gauntlet operated intermittently, but most of the activity reportedly occurred between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and midnight on Friday and Saturday nights. Just as gauntlet activity escalated over the years, so too did the intensity and frequency of hallway assaults increase over the three nights of Tailhook 91. Our investigation revealed that many women freely and knowingly participated in gauntlet activities. A significant number of witnesses reported that women went through the gauntlet and seemed to enjoy the attention and interaction with the aviators. Those witnesses, both men and women, generally stated they could tell the women were enjoying themselves because, despite being grabbed and pushed along through the crowd, they were smiling and giggling. Some of the women were observed going repeatedly through the gauntlet. Many women who went through the gauntlet told us they did so willingly and were not offended by the men touching them. A civilian woman employed by the Navy told us of a conversation she had with another young woman whom she met while on a commercial flight into Las Vegas to attend Tailhook 91. The young woman described the gauntlet and said that, at about 3:00 a.m., things get "real rough" and wild on the third floor. According to the Navy employee, the young woman implied that she enjoyed this type of activity and that was the reason she was going to Tailhook 91. Our investigation also revealed a much more sinister aspect to the gauntlet at Tailhook 91 which involved assaults on unsuspecting women. Of those assaults which occurred in the hallway, 5 took place on Thursday, 11 on Friday, and 53 on Saturday. Individual witness descriptions best portrayed the assaults and related activities. The following are but a few of the many eyewitness accounts reported during the investigation. A female Navy lieutenant described the spontaneous formation of the gauntlet. She said that squadron mates told her about the gauntlet prior to attending Tailhook and warned her "don't be on the third floor after 11:00 p.m." Even though she was never told of the assaultive aspects of the gauntlet, she realized that something happened to women who walked through the gauntlet. She explained that in a matter of 30 minutes on Saturday night the hallway underwent a major transformation. At 10:00 p.m., it was a quiet place with 20 people. By 10:30 p.m., it had become an absolute mob scene. It was apparent to her that the gauntlet she had heard about was starting up, and she opined that people appeared to be exiting the suites into the hallway at a preplanned time for the gauntlet. A male Navy lieutenant junior grade also described the transformation of the hallway, as well as an incident of indecent exposure in the gauntlet. He said that on Friday night he saw the third floor go from a "crowded hallway" where people were just laughing and joking to a "hallway where people started grabbing women" and exhibiting a "mob mentality." He observed a short male, whom he believed to be a Marine because of his short haircut, taking part in the gauntlet. He said the man was "half naked" and took a woman's hand and rubbed it against his exposed penis. This incident occurred near the end of the gauntlet. He added that he did not think the woman realized she had touched the man's penis, although she appeared to be distressed. A male Navy lieutenant described one unsuspecting woman's passage through the gauntlet. He stated that on Friday night at approximately 11:00 p.m., while standing in the third floor hallway in the area of the elevators, he heard people chanting and pounding on something in a rhythmic drumming manner. He observed approximately 200 men lined up along the hallway walls. He compared the activity to a high school football practice type of gauntlet. He saw a woman enter and it seemed to him that "...she did not understand it was a gauntlet." As she attempted to walk through, he observed her being "groped and molested." She was obviously "not enjoying it [and] was pushing hands away from places she did not want them." As she approached the gauntlet, he "saw a look of fear in her eyes. She fought her way through the gauntlet and then busted out the side through a suite." He said the look of fear in the woman's eyes caused him to realize the gauntlet was not just a playful situation and he became concerned for other women in the hallway and vicinity of the gauntlet. He found a hotel security guard and advised him of the incident. He also warned some other women by telling them "you don't want to go in there." A male Marine Corps captain told us that the gauntlet was operated in an organized manner. He said that on Saturday night between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m. he observed the gauntlet. It operated between the hotel service area and the VA-128 suite (room 307). He saw a group of about 30 men, whom he believed to be military personnel, milling around in the hallway. As he watched, women approached and someone yelled "wave off," at which time the women walked through without being molested. On separate occasions, he saw two women walk into the group of men and, once inside, the men turned on the women and began jostling and pushing them along the hallway. When a woman entered the group, both ends of the gauntlet closed with men blocking any avenue of retreat. Once a woman escaped from the gauntlet, someone yelled "mill about," which would then be repeated over and over in low voices by the men all along the gauntlet. In response, the men slowly shuffled their feet and faced at odd angles until the next woman approached, giving the appearance they were just standing along the hall socializing with each other. The Marine captain also observed the group grab a woman who was accompanied by a man. The man yelled "knock it off...that's my wife," and the man stepped in front of the woman to shield her. The group ignored the man and kept grabbing and jostling the woman until the husband started swinging his fists at the men who were assaulting his wife. At that point, the group stopped and allowed the couple to pass through. A Tailhook staff person later approached the group and yelled "knock this crap off." A couple of men attempted to argue with the Tailhook staffer, but the staffer did not back down and the group disbanded. A male Marine Corps first lieutenant said that on Friday night he saw about a dozen women walk through the gauntlet, and approximately half of those appeared to be happy and enjoying themselves. The other half appeared displeased and at least one appeared seriously distressed. A crowd of about 200 males bunched together in the hall pounding the wall and shouting "gauntlet, gauntlet." Periodically, males shouted "mill about" at which time the people in the gauntlet would begin feigning "milling about and the general noise level would lower. When a female entered the gauntlet, the participants would surround her and touch, pat and grab her while she was funneled down the hall. He heard shouts of "shut the doors," which he deduced was intended to prevent women from escaping to the suites and to channel them through the length of the gauntlet. He said the general noise level increased substantially when an attractive female entered the gauntlet. He also heard shouts of "wave off, which he believed was a code indicating an older or "unattractive" female was entering the gauntlet. The participants did not touch women rated as "wave off." Another male Navy lieutenant described how gauntlet participants treated women differently depending on how each woman reacted to being touched. He said he saw at least 15 women come through the gauntlet in a 2-hour period and estimated that a third of the women seemed to enjoy the gauntlet, another third were upset by it, and the remaining third were extremely resistant to the gauntlet. He noted that the more the women fought the men who were attacking them, the more the males attacked. We received two independent accounts of a woman (or women) who walked through the hallway with electronic weapons. One male lieutenant said that on Saturday night he saw a woman come through the crowd carrying a "Tazer," which he described as a device similar to a small cattle prod and designed to foil attackers. He said the woman was waving the device, which was apparently recognized by the men in the hallway because they did not bother her. Another officer said he saw a woman on Saturday who looked "frazzled." He said that as the woman approached the elevators a man tried to grab her breasts. The woman pulled out a "zapper" (which he described as a stun gun) which she waved in the man's face. A Navy enlisted man -43 stated that on Friday night, while standing in the hallway near the deck exit closest to the Rhino suite, he saw men lining up along the hallway. Several women pushed their way through and they emerged from the gauntlet near where he was standing. When they emerged, the women had squadron stickers on their bodies. The hallway scene looked "like a pin ball machine [with each] guy getting his shot in." He also saw a man near the elevators quieting the men in the hallway as unsuspecting women approached the gauntlet. He believed the gauntlet to be an organized event because the man quieting the crowd received a strong negative response from the men in the hall when, after successfully quieting the crowd, a man, rather than a woman, appeared at the gauntlet's entrance. There were numerous accounts of how women were lured into the gauntlet. For example, some witnesses heard men in the gauntlet yell out that they needed more women, and men would then go down to the casino area to recruit them. A male civilian Navy employee told us that he observed the gauntlet on two occasions on Saturday night. Sometime between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m., he was standing in the hallway near the VX-4 suite (room 360). He could only see the end of the gauntlet because of the crowd. Although most women who exited did not appear upset and some were even laughing, he saw one woman crying and being consoled by two friends. About an hour later, he was standing near the HS-I helicopter suite (room 315) where he observed the beginning of the gauntlet. As women entered, he saw hands reach out for their breasts, crotch areas and buttocks. Two hotel security guards were standing near the service area advising women not to walk down the hall, but they took no steps to stop the gauntlet. During that same time, he watched a male walk up to women and escort them into the gauntlet. The male would walk up to the women, put his arm around them, and talk nicely to them, almost as if he were trying to disarm them and not let on that they were about to be thrust into a gauntlet. He heard participants whisper "shhhh" in an attempt to quiet everyone down. The noise level in the gauntlet decreased when new women approached and elevated once they were in the gauntlet. A male Navy lieutenant commander and his civilian spouse each described their observations of the gauntlet on Saturday night. The officer told us that he has attended four or five Tailhooks since 1982 and is familiar with the gauntlet, which occurred at every Tailhook convention. He said the term gauntlet is routinely used among naval aviators. It occurs at no established day or time and the hallway is lined with people who begin by chanting. He opined that, for the most part, the same people get involved in the gauntlet each year. The gauntlet varies in size depending on the time of the night. On Saturday night at Tailhook 91 his wife wanted to see the gauntlet in action. He was unsuccessful in dissuading her, so they went to the third floor hallway where they stood about 5 to 6 feet away from the head of the gauntlet; they saw a very clear demarcation point where the gauntlet began. They watched for approximately 20 minutes and heard men yelling such things as "clear deck," "foul deck," "wave off" and "bolter." During that time, he saw a number of people enter the gauntlet. Men proceeded unmolested; however, several women were pinched or patted on the buttocks. All those women appeared to be laughing. The lieutenant commander further stated that he also saw a couple who appeared to be in their mid to late 60's enter the gauntlet area. As they walked through the gauntlet, a passageway opened up to let the couple through. His wife told him that she saw someone pat the woman's buttocks, but he did not see that himself. He recalled that one woman started down the gauntlet and became irate when she was apparently pinched. He said she turned around and threw a beer at a man standing 3 to 4 feet away, hitting him in the face and head with the beer. The man retaliated by throwing his beer on the woman. The woman hit the man on his jaw and the man then struck the side of the woman's head with a closed hand and the witness thought the woman might have fallen to her knees. He said the woman reversed course and "took off like a rocket.-44 At that point, his wife said she had seen enough and the couple departed. He noted that in previous years he also took part in the gauntlet. He opined that the gauntlet is more of a melee than an organized event and that no one individual organized it. He said that in the past, the gauntlet was a "promenade kind of thing" in which women went through for the express purpose of getting pinched. He added that it has been a rule for everyone involved in a significant gauntlet incident to leave as soon as the incident happened because that hinders identification of those involved. The officer's spouse provided a somewhat different perspective of the same incidents. She said that when she and her husband entered the third floor hallway, people were screaming and yelling. She leaned against the wall so that her back was protected. Her husband stood in front of her to shield her from potential frontal assaults. She recalled that an unidentified male who was standing nearby, turned to her and said something like, "You probably will want to leave. You won't want to see what's about to happen." She said it appeared that some signal had been given that the "gauntlet" was about to start, and all the men in the hallway began lining the halls rather than milling about, as though suddenly organized. She said many of the men began drumming their hands on the walls. A clear passageway formed down the center of the hallway and women were pinched or patted on their buttocks as they walked through. Regarding the incident described by her husband in which a man and a woman struck each other in the gauntlet, she said that she was personally shocked by the force of the blow the man used. It appeared to her that the man put his full strength behind the blow. Unlike her husband, she did not see any women lining up to get pinched or patted, but rather it seemed to her that they were simply trying to get through the hallway. -45 She saw an older couple go through the gauntlet. It appeared to her that the crowd did not care about rank or age, as a number of men touched the woman's buttocks and the woman continuously tried to swat their hands away. A vivid and detailed description of the gauntlet on Saturday night was reported by a male civilian Navy employee. He said, "I was probably 10 years older than the average age down here, and was just sort of being a fly on the wall, just observing." He said the men lining the hallway quieted and pressed their backs against the walls when females approached so as to give the appearance of a clear passage down the center of the hallway. He saw a white male who was standing in the hallway near the HS-I helicopter suite (room 315) whom he described as the gauntlet "master of ceremonies." He said the "master of ceremonies" was moving about in a very animated fashion and appeared totally dedicated to getting all the women approaching the hallway to proceed down it. When unable to coax women into entering the gauntlet, the "master of ceremonies" would "...pick them up on his shoulders and carry them into the gauntlet area and deposit them and go out for more." He reported seeing four to six women carried into the gauntlet by the "master of ceremonies." On one occasion the master of ceremonies" approached a woman from behind, squatted down, placed his head between her legs, and forcibly carried her on his shoulders into the gauntlet. The Navy employee went on to describe how he happened to get caught in the middle of the gauntlet on Saturday evening: I had made my way down towards the training suites, the VF-121 (sic) suite, Room 373 and was then making my way back through the hallway--a very, very crowded hallway--very slow progress being made through the hallway. At about the Room 308 to 312 area there, there was some commotion in the hallway and some direction to make a hole, or clear the hallway. At this time all the people around me were getting up against the wall, they were clearing out of the hallway. So I did likewise. In about the area of Room 308, 307, on that side of the hallway, I then basically put my back to the wall and I had a beer mug with me, and awaited further instructions. I was just, once again, a fly on the wall. At this point, then, I noticed that there was one woman that had been behind me, obviously, and she was now to my right. She got accosted from both sides of the hallway. People were grabbing her...She was falling against the far side wall. He further stated that the woman tried to protect herself as she was being grabbed high and low, both front and back, by all the men around her. He said that at least one of the men who grabbed the woman's breasts appeared to be a civilian. He said she was definitely not amused by the grabbing and she attempted to fight back. Many eyewitness accounts described women who had articles of clothing ripped or removed as they went through the gauntlet. One particularly disturbing incident involved an intoxicated college freshman who was stripped from the waist down as she was passed overhead through the gauntlet and then left on the hallway floor. Although she had not attained legal drinking age in Nevada, she was served a considerable amount of alcohol by the officers in the HS-l hospitality suite. After becoming intoxicated, she was placed by those officers in the hallway in the vicinity of the gauntlet. Once in the hallway, she was lifted above the crowd of men and passed hand-over-hand down the hallway. As she was passed over the crowd, the men removed her slacks and underpants. At the end of the gauntlet, they dumped her on the floor, and cleared out of the hallway as hotel security officers came to the victim's assistance. A Marine Corps first lieutenant who witnessed the same incident from the other end of the hallway described the reaction of gauntlet participants. He had just left the CNATRA suite and was in the hallway walking toward the guest elevators and hotel service area. A mass of people was going in the same direction. Suddenly, there was a shift in the motion of the crowd and six to eight men rushed toward him, going in the other direction as quickly as possible, but laughing rather than fleeing in fear. The hallway suddenly cleared for several feet in front of him, and he saw a young female, naked from the waist down, seated in the middle of the hall. The Executive Director of the Tailhook Association told us that he learned of this incident shortly after it occurred. When questioned about how he viewed the matter, he responded: I looked at it as a spontaneous incident, more along the line of a prank, not a prank in good taste, but I...that's my view of the situation at the time. During the investigation, we obtained a photograph taken just after this incident occurred. It shows the victim, nude from the waist down, being escorted by security officials through the hallway as a group of aviators looks on. The hallway is littered with plastic drinking cups and the victim's pants. We chose not to publish the photograph out of consideration for the victim. However, we note that during several interviews we conducted in which the officer being interviewed expressed his belief that the events at Tailhook 91 were "no big deal," showing the officer a copy of the photograph had a dramatic effect. Several of the officers who viewed the photograph were visibly shaken. The gauntlet was also vividly described to us by several victims. One female civilian victim, who was in Las Vegas on vacation with a female friend, told us she was walking through the third floor hallway with her friend when a group of men in the hallway began chanting and yelling. The men reached out and began to grab at her breasts, buttocks and crotch. They tried to lift her skirt and grabbed at her legs and buttocks while she desperately tried to hold down her skirt. As she looked back she saw that her friend was also being assaulted. The men also threw drinks on the victim, soaking her clothing with alcohol. Another female civilian victim told us that, as she walked up the hallway, at least seven men suddenly attacked her. They pulled down her "tube top" and grabbed at her exposed breasts while she attempted to cover herself with her arms. She tell to the ground and the assault continued. She bit several of her attackers in an attempt to stop their assault. After a few moments, they stopped their attack and she was allowed to get up from the floor. She turned and looked back down the hallway and observed another woman screaming and fighting her way down the hallway as she too was attacked. The victim was crying profusely when she was approached by a Marine Corps aviator whom she had met earlier. He told her that it is an annual tradition at Tailhook conventions to harass women physically and verbally in the hallway and she should not worry about it. The victim later told her boyfriend, a Navy officer, about the attack but he advised her not to tell anyone about it because they would think she was a "slut." In another incident, a 24-year-old female Navy officer told us that she entered the third floor hallway and was immediately surrounded by five or six men who groped and grabbed at her breasts and buttocks. While she struggled to escape, she saw two male Navy officers she recognized standing in the hallway close to where she was being attacked. Although she believed the men witnessed her attack and failed to help her, both men denied having seen or heard anything unusual. The victim saw one of the Navy officers several months after Tailhook 91. He told the victim that men have been treating women like that "since caveman days," and that she had no business being there (Tailhook 91) in the first place because she was not an aviator. One victim, a 32-year-old female, reported that she attended Tailhook 91 with her spouse, a Navy officer; her mother; and two of her mother's female friends. As the group walked through the hallway the victim, who was wearing a formal cocktail dress, was suddenly grabbed around the waist and lifted above the crowd by two men. The men lifted the skirt of her dress above her waist and pushed their hands between her legs in an attempt to get their fingers inside her panties. Our investigation revealed that the victim's mother as well as one of her mother's friends were also indecently assaulted as they walked through the hallway. LT Paula Coughlin, the Navy officer who first publicly revealed allegations of impropriety at Tailhook 91, told us that she entered the third floor hallway of the Hilton Hotel and, as she walked up the hallway and into a crowd of men, someone began to yell "Admiral's Aide!" She was grabbed on the buttocks from behind with such force that she was lifted up off the ground. As she turned to confront the man, another man behind her grabbed her buttocks and she was pushed from behind into a crowd of men who collectively began pinching her body and pulling at her clothing. One man put both his hands down the front of her tank top, inside her brassiere and grabbed her breasts. LT Coughlin told us that she crouched down and bit the man on his forearm and on his right hand. As the man released his grip on her breasts, another man reached up under her skirt and grabbed her panties. She then kicked out at her attackers. She stated "I felt as though the group was trying to rape me." LT Coughlin told us that she saw one of the men in the group turn to walk away so she "reached out and tapped him on the hip, pleading with the man to just let me get in front of him." The man turned around to face her, raised both his hands, and placed them on her breasts. Many witnesses stated there was nothing they could do to stop the assaults in the hallway and that the size of the crowd, the level of intoxication, and the noise would have made it impossible for them to put a stop to the gauntlet. One Navy lieutenant said that although he believed the actions of those in the gauntlet were inappropriate, he did not do anything to stop them simply because he is a junior officer. Others, however, stated that senior officers could have put a stop to the assaults if they had chosen to do so. A lieutenant commander opined that if a flag officer had elected to stop the gauntlet, it probably would have stopped. He added, however, the comment that, "You get to a certain stage of drunkenness, you don't care." We found one account to be particularly telling on the subject of whether anything could have been done to stop the gauntlet assaults. Apparently, the crowd comprising the gauntlet was capable of responding to direction. Two female victims told us that, after they were pushed and shoved through the gauntlet where they were grabbed on the breasts and buttocks, one of them realized she had lost her electronic pager. Both victims recounted that they were assisted by officers standing at the end of the gauntlet. One of the officers yelled to the gauntlet participants that the woman had lost a pager. According to one of the victims, the "...whole crowd stopped and began to look for the pager." The pager was located and returned to the woman without further incident. Our investigation disclosed that, despite statements by many senior officers to the contrary, the fact that the gauntlet was in operation was well known. As previously mentioned, a large number of officers said they had witnessed or heard of the gauntlet at prior Tailhook conventions. Many others, particularly female officers, said they had been forewarned to avoid the third floor hallway at certain times. Even many civilians who were in attendance at Tailhook 91 said they were aware of the gauntlet. Several witnesses described seeing similar gauntlet activity at settings other than Tailhook, such as at officers' clubs. A number of officers said they felt confident the gauntlet was common knowledge among military attendees at Tailhook. Several officers stated that anyone who spent time in the area of the third floor hallway on Friday or Saturday night and said they were unaware of the gauntlet activity "must be lying." Several witnesses mentioned that they heard references to the gauntlet while out on the pool deck. One lieutenant said that he recalled someone walking out onto the pool deck on either Friday or Saturday evening and saying "they've already run the gauntlet." There were accounts of other gauntlet activity. One gauntlet reportedly operated briefly on an upper floor of the hotel. Also, a witness described a "mini gauntlet" on the patio pool deck where several women repeatedly and consensually walked through a line of officers. Of the many officers and civilian Tailhook attendees who admitted witnessing the gauntlet, only a few witnesses stated they were able to identify anyone else who was in the hallway at the time they witnessed the gauntlet in operation. In light of statements by most aviators that one of the primary reasons for attending Tailhook was to socialize with friends and former squadron mates, we found the inability of witnesses to identify gauntlet observers or participants to be incredible. The statements were also questionable in light of the fact that many of those same officers could identify persons in their company at other times during Tailhook 91. When one Navy commander was queried as to the likelihood of an aviator being in the third floor hallway without seeing anybody whom that person knew, the commander responded: "You couldn't have done that, I don't think...well, maybe in the morning and the afternoon but, you know, in the evenings, I don't think you could have done that." When asked, hypothetically, about witnesses who stated that they were in the hallway and did not see anybody that they knew, this witness stated: "I would say that the person would be lying, and I don't see how he could do that. I was an ensign the first time that I went there, and I knew people, even inside the air wing, okay? You would almost have to know somebody there. So I'm sure there's an isolated case, but I don't think so." A T-shirt sold at Tailhook 91 and worn by many attendees serves to illustrate the expectations regarding the general atmosphere relative to the third floor. (See Figure 9 - next page) Figure 9. T-Shirt worn by some Tailhook 91 Attendees [unavailable due to graphics limitations] B. Victims From Thursday, September 5, 1991 through the early morning hours of Sunday, September 8, 1991, at least 90 people were victims of some form of indecent assault while at Tailhook 91. Of that number, 83 were women and 7 were men. -46 Our investigation also disclosed information pertaining to 10 women who told us they were assaulted at previous Tailhook conventions. This report focuses on the Tailhook 91 assault victims. The graph shown at Figure 10 on the next page depicts various categories of victims by occupation or other affiliation. The assault victims range from 18 to 48 years of age. Eight victims were assaulted more than once. Of those, four victims were assaulted on more than one evening and four were each assaulted at two different locations on the same night. Victims Govt. Empl. (Female) (6) USN (Male) (5) USN (Female) (21) USMC (Male) (2) USAF (Female) (1) Military Spouse (Female) (6) Civilian Other (Female) (49) Total Victims: 90 Figure 10. Victims [pie chart converted to text due to graphics limitations} We divided the assaults into three separate nights. Those assaults indicated as occurring on Thursday include those that occurred in the early morning hours of Friday. Friday assaults include events in the early hours of Saturday morning, and Saturday includes early Sunday morning as well. Eleven assaults, involving 10 women, took place on Thursday evening. Five took place in the hallway, five in administrative suites, and one on the pool patio. -47 Eighteen assaults occurred on Friday night. Eleven took place in the hallway, five in administrative suites, and two on the pool patio. The greatest number of assaults occurred on Saturday evening, when there were a total of 68 assaults involving 63 victims. Fifty-three of those assaults took place in the third floor hallway, eight in suites, six on the pool patio and one victim was assaulted in one of the guest rooms on another floor. Of the assaults that took place in the third floor hallway on Saturday night, 36 took place between 9:00 p m. and 12:00 midnight. Fold-ins 3 through 5 depict me relative location of each assault on a day-by-day basis using a schematic view of the third floor area. -48 Individual assaults are shown using assigned victim numbers. The assaults varied from victims being grabbed on the buttocks, to victims being groped, pinched and fondled on their breasts, buttocks and genitals. -49 Some victims were bitten by their assailants, others were knocked to the ground and some had their clothing ripped or removed. Some of the victims confronted their attackers and felt they had handled the situation to their own satisfaction. Few victims were able to identify positively their assailants. Typically, they attributed their inability to identify their attackers to several factors, including poor lighting in the hallway, the confusion resulting from the crowded conditions and their shock at being assaulted. The victims also said most of the men in the hallway looked alike in that they were young, physically fit, Caucasian males with short military style haircuts and typically dressed in T-shirts and shorts. A complete summary of each of the assaults is attached as Appendix F. Of the victims, nine did not consider themselves to be a "victim" even though they had been subjected to indecent assault. C. Other Assaults and Injuries A number of assaults, other than indecent assaults, occurred at Tailhook 91. Several witnesses reported that fights occurred in the third floor hallway and the pool patio area. Hotel security reported breaking up several such altercations on the third floor during Tailhook 91. In one instance, a Marine Corps major was pushed over a clay planter by a Navy commander on the pool patio. The altercation occurred after the major, while intoxicated, deliberately splashed water onto the commander. The commander took umbrage and forcibly pushed the major over the planter. The major sustained back injuries and was transported to a local hospital. In another incident, a 24-year-old male Air Force officer from Las Vegas, Nevada, walked into the hallway of the third floor of the hotel on Friday wearing his Air Force flight jacket. As soon as he exited the elevators, the naval aviators in the hallway yelled "Hey boys, there's an Air Force guy." They then grabbed him, picked him up and passed him overhead about 80 to 100 feet down the hallway, spilling their drinks on him along the way. The officer subsequently escaped the area without sustaining any physical injuries. Finally, a female student from the University of Las Vegas (UNLV) was on the pool patio talking with several other female UNLV students on Saturday evening when a sheet of glass from one of the upper floor windows of the hotel was pushed out. -51 Glass shards from the window struck her on top of her head. She began to feel ill and went to the hospital where it was determined that she had suffered a concussion. According to several witnesses, the glass was pushed out of the window by people who were pressing their bare buttocks on the window while "mooning" the crowd on the pool patio below. Notes 42 No other witnesses reported the existence of such a sign. 43 We interviewed a total of 27 enlisted personnel who attended Tailhook 91. 44 This woman was not further identified during the course of our investigation. 45 The officer's wife said she was "stone cold sober" at the time she witnessed the gauntlet, whereas she and her husband stated that he had been drinking. 46 We are aware there are individuals, in addition to those discussed in this report, who were victims of indecent assault at Tailhook 91. That group includes five individuals who have been identified by us as assault victims, but who refused to be interviewed. 47 One victim was assaulted in the hallway and also in one of the administrative suites. Similarly, two victims who were working as waitresses in an administrative suite were assaulted numerous times in the suite over the 3-day period. 48 In six cases wherein the victims could not recall the specific events of their assault, we have not included those assaults in the aforenoted daily figures nor did we display them on Fold-ins 3 through 5. 49 There were numerous accounts of lewd comments directed toward women, as well as accounts of women who were nonconsensually patted, touched or "zapped" on various parts of their bodies. Those accounts were not included as assaults for purposes of this report. 50 For the purposes of our investigation and report, we have used the term "victim" to describe any individual who was subjected to a nonconsensual indecent assault. If, however, an individual told us that he/she chose not to be classified as a victim, we so noted that fact in their individual assault summary. 51 As discussed in Section VII.B of the report.