AF Pilot’s Case to Prompt Tougher Rules, Officials Say

WASHINGTON — Despite the public outcry over military sexual-conduct rules in the case of Air Force First Lt. Kelly J. Flinn, the Pentagon is, if anything, likely to make its standards even tougher after a high-level examination now underway, Defense Department officials said Friday.

The services have begun reviewing their rules in hopes of ironing out inconsistencies in the way they treat “fraternization,” the term used to describe overly close relationships between troops of different ranks.

In recent days, the adultery and fraternization charges lodged against Flinn, the first female B-52 bomber pilot, have prompted a storm of complaints from such figures as Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) that the military is out of step with a more tolerant civilian world.

But several Pentagon officials said the services’ most likely course in bringing uniformity to their varied standards would be to make the Army’s rules identical to the slightly tougher ones observed by the Marines, Navy and Air Force. “The most relaxed [service] is the one that’s out of line,” noted one official.

The comments came as Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen acknowledged for the first time that the Air Force might have found a better way to handle the case against Flinn, who was charged with lying, disobeying an order, adultery and fraternization. The Air Force decided this week it would grant Flinn a “general discharge, under honorable conditions,” rather than begin a court-martial that could have dismissed her and put her in prison for 9 1/2 years.

While contending the Air Force ultimately had little choice but to order a court-martial, Cohen said that in the case’s early stages, “perhaps it could have been handled differently, at a lower level.” He spoke on “John McLaughlin’s One on One” program, taped Friday for weekend broadcast.

As recently as Thursday, when the discharge was announced, an Air Force spokesman contended, “I don’t know that we could say that anything went wrong” unless it was the public’s misunderstandings of the case.

Under the rules of the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, overly familiar relationships between officers and enlisted personnel--or between officers of different ranks, for that matter--are prohibited as a threat to the proper functioning of the organization. In the services’ view, such relationships breed suspicions of favoritism, which can disrupt an organization and make subordinates unwilling to risk their lives in battle.

The rules apply to platonic relationships as well as those between men and women. Different ranks are barred from most forms of socializing, gambling, vacationing, or transacting business with each other.

The Army followed the rules of the other services until 1993, when it adjusted its standards to allow different ranks to have close relationships providing they are not in the same chain of command. The new policy was chosen, according to an Army pamphlet, in part because in a military with more women, changing relationships, including dating, “are a reality.”

Cohen seemed to signal his determination to stand by the tougher rules. Asked in the TV interview if he wanted to relax them, he said, “I think we have high standards and should retain those high standards.”

At the same time, some defense officials indicated that the reexamination of the fraternization rules might lead to no change at all.

The services, which have long enjoyed the prerogative of setting their own policies on such matters, have been led to believe by civilian leadership that they have a free hand to take what they see as the wisest course in this area as well. Army officials are known to feel strongly that their more lenient rules have served them well so far.

The reexamination was provoked by concerns that it might be preferable to make the fraternization rules standard, given the increasing number of joint operations between the services.

Several military officials predicted that the outcry of recent days over the sexual conduct rules is based in part on public misunderstanding of a case that the Air Force has maintained was always more about Flinn’s false statement and disobedience than her romances. They believe public opinion has already begun to shift, and that the hubbub will die down.

“Congress has given the services a lot of leeway in the past on issues like this, and my bet is that they’ll continue to do so,” one officer said.

Some of the most outspoken critics of the Air Force in the Flinn case are now indicating they are not ready to head a crusade--particularly one that may entail political risks--to make the military more lenient on sex.

Lott, for example, despite his declaration that the military needs to “get real,” plans neither to sponsor legislation to change the rules nor, so far, to support anyone else’s bill, aides said. Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.), who accused the military of “gender schizophrenia” in its treatment of Flinn, doesn’t like the way the Air Force handled the case, but doesn’t object to the rules themselves, an aide said.

“Congress is really all over the board on this,” said Rep. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a former Air Force prosecutor and defense lawyer. “But I think some of the people who have been making a lot of noise about this are going to see they don’t know what they’re talking about.”

* TROOPS TOUGH ON FLINN

Service personnel say B-52 pilot broke critical rules. A16