Reports Of Hazing Leaves Cloud Over Naval Academy

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - For a week last summer, a first-year student at the U.S. Naval Academy was not allowed to urinate without the permission of an upperclassman. The mid, whose last name was Vaca, also was forced to call himself Midshipman ``Caca.''

Another freshman was dismissed for violating the honor code after fibbing to upperclassmen that he had jogged even though he quickly tried to correct himself.

A female freshman says she suffered the indignity of having to stand in a windowless room, listening to a harangue about the importance of properly walking the halls of the dormitory even though her menstrual period had started and blood had soaked her uniform.

``I wasn't allowed to go to the restroom and take care of myself. They just made a joke out of it,'' recalled Julie Simas of Bowie, Md., who didn't report the incident and resigned before the end of school last year.

These incidents came to light after disclosures that Gwen Dreyer, a midshipman from Encinitas, Calif., was dragged from her room and handcuffed to a pipe over a men's room urinal while male midshipmen jeered and took pictures.

Along with concerns about academic standards, the reports have put the 145-year-old institution under siege during commissioning week. The crisis includes a congressional investigation, a review by the General Accounting Office, two internal probes and an inquiry by the Navy's inspector general.

Meanwhile, members of the Anne Arundel chapter of the National Organization for Women plan to picket at the academy during tomorrow night's graduation ball to protest the treatment of female midshipmen.

As a result of the incidents and investigations, academy officials now say midshipmen found guilty of physically or mentally abusing first-year students will face expulsion.

Rear Adm. Virgil Hill Jr., the academy superintendent, last week issued a set of general orders - including a new program of sensitivity training for midshipmen.

``Under the admiral's order, if an upperclassman touches a plebe other than for safety reasons or in an athletic contest, he can be subject to dismissal,'' said Lt. Cmdr. Mark Van Dyke, an academy spokesman.

Plebes are expected to follow any order quickly, memorize obscure regulations and facts about the fleet, eat in a proper cadence and walk briskly through their dorm, Bancroft Hall.

It is an indoctrination that is ``a necessary part of the professional development needed to make mids good leaders,'' Van Dyke said. But upperclassmen must use good judgment, he added. They are not allowed to demean other midshipmen or issue unlawful orders.

Although all plebes are expected to undergo a certain amount of hazing - pressing a penny to a wall with one's nose, for example - the onus falls heavily on women, who have met resistance since they first were admitted to the service academies in 1976.

At the Naval Academy, that practice has been at least partly responsible for an attrition rate for women that has been noticeably higher than the overall rate for the past 10 years, according to a 1987 report by the Midshipman Women Study Group. Statistics, however, show that attrition among women is high at all three service academies.

Current and former midshipmen say one of the main reasons women drop out is that they sense the resentment of men who think that women don't belong there.

``It's never gonna change over there,'' said a 1982 male graduate who asked not to be named. ``The seniors just keep handing it down to the lower classes.''

``The plebes are in their rooms, and they hear the upperclassmen talking in the hall,'' explained Kara Flatly of Virginia Beach, a graduating senior. ``They hear the terms and the stereotypes, and those things start to take hold over the years.''

Female mids often are cowed by peer pressure and remain silent. Simas said she never reported the incident in the windowless room because ``a senior midshipman told me it would not be to my benefit.''

``You don't want to be seen as a crybaby,'' added Kristin Fabry of Bremerton, Wash., one of two midshipman representatives on the women's study group, which was reconvened last winter after the Dreyer incident.

But if women are having a tough time at the academy, there is evidence that Hispanics may be suffering as badly. Navy records show that Hispanic attrition rates have been higher than for midshipmen in general for 10 of the past 11 years.

Paul Trevino, 20, a Hispanic ex-plebe from Springfield, Va., complained that he was falsely accused of lying in the jogging incident and forced to resign. He says the upperclassman who reported the alleged misconduct had earlier led a hazing incident against him.

``I was abnormally singled out,'' said Trevino. ``Something was going on.''

Two weeks ago, Victor-Hugo Vaca Jr., the midshipman who was forced to call himself Caca, resigned from the academy after taking a year of abuse.

Vaca said he once was forced to eat and drink until he vomited and ended up sick for two days. Like Trevino, he was constantly taunted by the older midshipmen, and his military and classroom performance suffered, he said.

``I tried to stick up for my rights and that's what got me into trouble,'' Vaca said. ``Nobody likes to hear they're wrong, especially from a lowly plebe. They can just back you up against a wall and use the honor system against you.''