Cohen Sees No Military ‘Epidemic’ of Sexual Misconduct

WASHINGTON — In the face of sexual misconduct allegations against four Pentagon officials in five days, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen insisted Tuesday that the accusations reflect intense public scrutiny rather than an “epidemic” of military misbehavior.

‘I think we’re going through a period in which this has become very much in high profile,” Cohen said. “But I believe overall our military is doing an outstanding job.”

His comments came as the latest target of misconduct allegations, the commander of the Army’s Aberdeen Ordnance School and Center in northern Maryland, sought to explain an adulterous affair that led to his decision to surrender his post. Maj. Gen. John Longhauser, who ran the school where the Army’s worst scandal began, was accused in a series of calls to the Army’s hotline of conducting an affair with a civilian woman in 1990.

In a statement released Tuesday evening, Longhauser explained that he had begun the relationship when he and his wife were separated and beginning divorce proceedings. Later, the couple reconciled, he said, and now “Karen is my best friend, as well as a loving and loyal wife.”

But he said that “in view of our past relationship and the concern currently being focused on the military and the personal lives of its members, my family and I have decided that it would be best for me to retire at this time.”

Longhauser, a decorated soldier with two tours in Vietnam, apologized to his wife and two daughters for “any pain or embarrassment I have brought to my family.”

‘I love the Army and have worn the uniform proudly,” he added.

Cohen praised Longhauser’s career. But he also defended the strict military code that has brought harsh punishments to some charged with improper relationships and forced others into retirement.

‘We expect the highest of standards from our military leaders and they expect that,” he said. Longhauser, Cohen said, is “another example of someone who failed to measure up to those standards.”

Longhauser, who graduated from West Point in 1965, will retire as a one-star general rather than a two-star, since he has held the more senior rank only since mid-1995, rather than the full three years required. That will lower his retirement pay.

Longhauser’s decision comes three days after news that two other top-level military service officials are under investigation for sexual misconduct.

The Navy announced Friday that it was relieving from duty Rear Adm. R.M. Mitchell Jr., who commanded the Navy’s supply system. He is accused of sexually harassing a female subordinate.

At the same time, officials acknowledged harassment complaints against William T. Coleman III, the Army’s chief counsel and son of a former Transportation secretary. Coleman’s attorney has denied the charges.

Also last week, the Army relieved a one-star general commanding its southeastern military hospitals because of allegations that he carried on an “improper relationship.” Gen. Stephen N. Xenakis, a psychiatrist, was accused of conducting the relationship with a nurse who was caring for his critically ill wife.

Pentagon officials asserted that the unusual spate of disclosures was no more than coincidence. Before the Army’s sex scandal drew public attention to the topic, such allegations and suspensions likely would have drawn attention in their communities but not far beyond them.

Officials said that the sexual harassment hotlines set up in the wake of the Aberdeen disclosures last fall had made it easier for accusers to log complaints anonymously with no risk to themselves. But use of the hotlines has been tapering off, they said, even with the new public interest generated by the court-martial charges against former Air Force Lt. Kelly J. Flinn, the first female B-52 bomber pilot, because of her sexual conduct.