Though charges of rape and adultery in the ranks have dominated the headlines, the story of Laughton and Davis is perhaps more typical of the real strains running through the modern military. It is about a subtle clash between two long-excluded groups - blacks and women - who are now struggling to protect their hard-won places in a hierarchy that prizes discipline and order over individual rights. African-Americans are beginning to question why a disproportionate number of men accused of sexual harassment by the military are black. All of the 14 drill sergeants accused of sexually exploiting their recruits at Aberdeen Proving Ground are African-American (and most of the women complaining of mistreatment are white). Charged with sexual harassment by six white women, the army’s top enlisted man, Sgt. Maj. Gene McKinney, is blaming racism as he stands trial. So, too, is Capt. Everett Greene, who was slated to be the first black head of the elite navy SEALs until he was accused of making improper overtures to two white female subordinates - while he was the man in charge of the navy’s office on sexual harassment. (Greene was acquitted by a court-martial, but he lost his chance to make admiral.) Many women in the navy feel just as aggrieved. Though they are now permitted to serve on warships, they have been pawed and largely frozen out by warrior elite, the naval aviators.
Davis sees himself as a casualty in the cross-fire over race and sex. He was an African-American on the fast track for promotion until, in the winter of 1991, he was suddenly confined in a psychiatric ward, accused of being a peeping Tom and a sexual harasser. Davis was later cleared of all charges by a court-martial, but his career was ruined and he was forced to retire. He is now suing the navy for racial discrimination. The blame, he believes, falls on his commanding officer, Admiral Laughton, who insisted on disciplining him for charges that he at first dismissed as a ““big joke.’’ ““She has a problem with black men,’’ says Davis. ““I think she is afraid of them. In the navy, we’re told not to complain about racism, but it’s always there.''
The military, it seems, is not quite the model of racial harmony it is sometimes made out to be, and the navy has perhaps a worse history on race than other services, dating back to shipboard race riots in the 1970s. Still, Laughton hardly seems like a racist oppressor. A no-nonsense taskmaster, Laughton has been a mentor for women coming up the ranks. She sees herself as a fighter against discrimination, not as someone who could be guilty of discrimination herself. She believes she was just going by the book.
No slack: In 1991, Davis, a proud man with a deep voice and a grave manner, had been given an important command of a navy telecommunications center in Yokosuka, Japan, and he felt sure he was on his way to being captain. He drew the attention of navy investigators, however, when he had trouble with a lie-detector test on the question of whether he had taken secret documents to his home. For naval communicators, mishandling secret documents is a serious matter. Davis’s problems grew even more serious when a woman told investigators that Davis, a married man, had made a sexually suggestive remark to her at a dance. Several other women came forward with similar complaints of lewd or leering comments, though no one suggested any physical abuse. One woman claimed he had been a voyeur, peering through the window of a woman’s house.
Some commanders might have tried to informally resolve these complaints without formal discipline. Davis’s commanding officer - Laughton, at the time a captain in charge of 17,000 sailors and officers - summoned him back to Washington for a psychiatric examination. Laughton is known for her rigidity and toughness, not her charm. ““She’s typical of senior women in the navy,’’ says another admiral. ““They don’t cut any slack.’’ Laughton may have also been influenced by the navy brass’s desire to crack down on sexual harassment - it was the winter of 1991, and the Tailhook scandal had just broken. Commander Davis did not win a more sympathetic hearing by calling Captain Laughton at 2 a.m. to protest. The psychiatrist at Bethesda Naval Hospital determined that Davis was sick with a ““bipolar disorder’’ - a technical term for severe mood swings - and confined him to the psych ward for two weeks. The doctor told aides that Davis was a ““sick puppy.’’ Wary of psychiatrists, Davis says he resisted the navy doctor’s insistence that he take what Davis called ““mind-bending drugs’’; later, at least four other psychiatrists determined that Davis was perfectly normal. Nonetheless, Laughton removed Davis from command and sought to have him retired for medical reasons. At the same time, she also began a procedure known as a ““captain’s mast’’ to discipline Davis for sexual harassment. Davis instead insisted on a formal court-martial.
An officer facing court-martial risks more serious discipline - including jail - than at a captain’s mast, but the defendant has the right to cross-examine his accusers. In September 1992, Davis was acquitted on all counts. Even so, Laugh- ton gave him a bad fitness report. In the up-or-out world of the downsizing navy, Davis was out.
Now an angry civilian, Davis sued. He hired as his lawyer Sonia Jarvis, a high-powered discrimination lawyer who had roomed with Anita Hill at Yale Law School. Jarvis is attempting to show that Laughton had a pattern of discriminating against black men. Laughton had disciplined three other black male officers for sexual or substance abuse. One, as it happened, was the son of the former head of the navy’s office on equal opportunity. (In part to avoid the ““appearance’’ of racial discrimination, and because several witnesses recanted, the navy brass later exonerated this officer.) Laughton was suddenly a target for aggrieved African-American naval officers. An anonymous letter was sent to the navy inspector general, describing Laughton as a ““vindictive’’ racist who demanded ““slave-like’’ loyalty from blacks.
A navy IG report in 1993 cleared Laughton, stating that, if anything, she had been a consistent supporter of minorities. Laughton, who was up for rear admiral, won her star after some delay. But when a good job came along in the private sector, she took it, resigning last spring, just a few days before Davis’s lawsuit against the navy was scheduled to go to trial. (The case has been put off while the navy tries to find a settlement.) Because she is still the main defense witness in the lawsuit, Laughton was barred by government lawyers from speaking directly to NEWSWEEK. But court documents and sources close to Laughton make it clear that she feels bitterly wronged by the charges of racism. As a little girl growing up in a Jewish neighborhood in Los Angeles right after World War II, Laughton (whose maiden name is German) was chased and stoned by other children. As a young woman officer she was subjected to sexual harassment that she will only describe as ““very crude.’’ Normally tightly controlled, Laughton has trouble holding back tears when she discusses the Davis case. A devout Baptist, Davis is less emotional, but just as angry. ““I was betrayed,’’ he told NEWSWEEK. ““In the navy, if you’re an African-American and you’re accused, it’s over.’’ Davis still hopes that his lawsuit will make ““the truth’’ surface. But it’s not a battle that either side is likely to win.
