ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 11, 1997 TAG: 9702110079
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: From The Associated Press and Knight-Ridder/Tribune
THE PENTAGON IS considering a step that many women say would be a chilling return to the past: sexually segregated basic training.
The Army suspended its top-ranking enlisted soldier Monday after the woman who accused him of sexual misconduct publicly complained of a ``different system of justice'' for the service's upper tier.
In explaining its decision, the Army said publicity about the allegations against Sgt. Maj. of the Army Gene McKinney made it difficult for him to perform his job.
Meanwhile, a military official said the Army has begun investigating a second case involving McKinney and a female sailor. The woman reported an allegation of harassment by McKinney to her supervisor, who then reported it to the Army, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
``We don't know if there's anything to it. It's being investigated,'' said the military source, who would not provide more substantive information.
A second military source, also speaking privately, confirmed that an incident involving a Navy sailor is being investigated. The sailor is on active duty and wants no publicity regarding her allegations, said the military officer.
``The Army Criminal Investigation Division has it,'' the officer said.
The Army had no comment on the report.
On Sunday, Army Secretary Togo West had argued the case for letting McKinney continue in his duties, although West said the issue was not fully settled.
On Monday, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Dennis Reimer said that McKinney - his senior enlisted adviser - had been assigned to the Military District of Washington ``pending resolution of the allegations.''
The step was taken one day after his accuser, retired Sgt. Maj. Brenda Hoster, and two senators said in television interviews that McKinney should be suspended until the charges against him are resolved.
Hoster, who had worked on McKinney's staff, last week publicly accused him of having asked her for sex, grabbed her and kissed her in a hotel room in Hawaii last April during a business trip. McKinney denied the accusation.
The two senators, Republicans Olympia Snowe of Maine and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, said it was not enough that the Army had removed McKinney from a panel that is reviewing the Army's policies against sexual harassment. They said it was unjust that Army drill sergeants were suspended immediately after they were accused of sexual misconduct but that McKinney was allowed to stay on.
``Certainly, everybody should be treated the same,'' Snowe said. ``If they're facing charges, they should be placed under suspension.''
McKinney, the first black man to serve in the post, has been the senior enlisted adviser to the chief of staff of the Army since June 30, 1995.
In a separate case, the European edition of the military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported Monday that military authorities at an Army training center in Darmstadt, Germany, are investigating allegations that three instructors at a military training center sexually assaulted students under their command.
The paper cited a military police blotter as its source. The allegations reportedly involved the 233rd Base Support Battalion Inprocessing Training Center, and included rape, sodomy, and cruelty and maltreatment of a subordinate.
The paper said local military authorities had refused to comment on the report.
Because of a flood of complaints about sexual harassment at Army training facilities, the Pentagon is considering a step that many military women say would be a chilling return to the past: sexually segregated basic training.
``I think it would be a terrible mistake,'' said Capt. Cory Whitehead, the commanding officer of the Navy's Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, Ill.
Despite such protests, some military experts say they believe that sexually segregated training would give women a chance to start their service careers without added stress from natural sexual tensions.
Former Navy Secretary James Webb has advocated the segregation of women in Army training as a ``logical ... immediate step'' toward a ``return to normalcy.'' And Reimer, told Congress last week that the Army was ready to review the issue.
``I think it's a matter that needs to be studied,'' said Defense Secretary William Cohen. ``I certainly am open to considering whether or not this is the right course of action - to have joint training or to have some sort of separate training ... and I think we all should take a look at it.''
But others, including West have serious concerns about ending mixed training.
``If we wish to address the larger issue of whether there should be women in mixed-gender training, it should not be in the context that seems to suggest: `They have been abused; let's take them out,''' West said.
Hoster said segregation by sex was wrong.
``To go back and reinvent the wheel to put women in their own separate training units is the good old boys' way to a quick fix without getting at the root cause,'' she said Monday.
``Let's face it,'' said Hoster, a drill sergeant from 1977 to 1980, ``how can any people - whether it's male and female, black and white - how can they learn to work together and respect each other if we don't keep them together and train them together?''
LENGTH: Long : 101 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP FILE. Sgt. Maj. of the Army Gene McKinney sits in hisby CNBPentagon office in this 1996 photo. color.