Hegseth wants to return the military to 1990 — a dark time in its history
The early 1990s saw the U.S. Navy rocked by the Tailhook sexual assault scandal, exposing an underside of military culture.
September 30, 2025 at 4:42 p.m. EDT
At his presentation Tuesday at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested to hundreds of gathered generals and admirals that the military could restore a “warrior ethos” by turning back the clock.
“What were the military standards in 1990? And if they have changed, tell me why. Was it a necessary change based on the evolving landscape of combat, or was the change due to a softening, weakening, or gender based pursuit of other priorities?” Hegseth said. “1990 seems to be as good a place to start as any.”
That was a striking point in history for Hegseth to have chosen. The early 1990s saw the U.S. Navy rocked by one of the biggest scandals in its history — one that exposed a dark underside of military culture.
In 1991, the annual convention of the Tailhook Association, a prestigious organization of naval and Marine Corps aviators, became a drunken three-day bacchanal, in which 83 women and 7 men were assaulted, according to a Defense Department investigation.
It erupted into a scandal after Lt. Paula Coughlin, a 30-year-old helicopter pilot and admiral’s aide, came forward with a harrowing account of being put through what was known as a “gantlet” on the third floor of the Las Vegas Hilton, where she said one man grabbed her breast, another tried to rip off her panties and she escaped what she feared was going to be a gang rape after biting one of her attackers.
The Navy’s own investigation revealed more disturbing things about its leadership. Rear Adm. Duvall M. “Mac” Williams, commander of the Naval Investigative Service, was quoted as having compared female Navy pilots to “go-go dancers, topless dancers or hookers.” Coughlin and other women were accused of being at fault for having even attended the convention.
Ultimately, the careers of more than a dozen admirals and hundreds of aviators were damaged by the scandal.
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WaPo
Over 8,000 complaints of sexual assault last year alone, and Hegseth wants to get rid of anonymity for filing complaints despite the fact that less than 3% of the accusations have been ruled as unfounded. |
