Harassment Claim Targets A Quantico Boss
By Steve Vogel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 20, 2000; Page C01
A high-ranking female administrator at Quantico Marine Corps
Base has been
suspended from her job at headquarters after a Marine officer
complained that
he and other Marines were sexually harassed by her.
Sandy A. Anderson, a GS-14 civilian employee who served as
deputy chief of
the base telecommunications section, is in the midst of a
two-week suspension
after an investigation into allegations that she jumped into the
officer's
lap, made lewd jokes and used sexual innuendo with Marines in
the section.
While sexual harassment is a sensitive topic in the military in
the wake of
the Aberdeen and Tailhook sex scandals, cases in which women are
accused of
sexually harassing men are unusual, officials said. In 1999,
there was only
one substantiated case in the Marine Corps in which a woman was
found to have
sexually harassed a man junior to her, authorities said.
Only 1 percent of men in the military reported being pressured
for sexual
favors in 1995, compared with 11 percent of women during the
same year,
according to the most recent Pentagon survey on the subject. "It
is much more
common for women to be harassed," said Mady Segal, a University
of Maryland
military sociologist.
A Marine captain working in the Quantico telecommunications
section, which is
known as the G-6, filed a complaint with the base equal
employment
opportunity office in December accusing Anderson of sexual
harassment and
discrimination. "Ms. Anderson has successfully attempted to
intimidate,
harass [both sexually and professionally], insult and demote
myself and other
individuals working at the G-6," he wrote in a statement
accompanying the
complaint.
"A female federal employee who served as the deputy G-6 was the
subject of
allegations of unprofessional conduct," said Lt. Col. Scott
Campbell, a
spokesman for the base. "The circumstances . . . were
investigated and
administrative action taken." Neither Campbell nor the
complainant would
address the specific allegations or whether they were all
corroborated by the
investigation.
Officials familiar with the case said Anderson has been
suspended for two
weeks and will return to the job next week in the lower position
of planner.
Anderson, a longtime employee at the base, declined to comment.
The sexual harassment case is one of a series of investigations
in recent
months that have roiled the section, whose 140 employees are
responsible for
providing telecommunications at the 60,000-acre base.
The officer who headed the section, Lt. Col. Donald H.
Hildebrand, has been
reassigned to the job of deputy. Maj. Gen. Leif Hendrickson, the
base
commander, ordered the move because of a "loss of confidence in
Lieutenant
Colonel Hildebrand's ability to lead the section," Campbell
said. Hildebrand
declined to comment.
Col. Zeke Cavazos, the base inspector, has been placed in charge
of the
telecommunications section in order "to provide a more senior
and experienced
officer," Campbell said.
Senior officers have been scrambling to control damage.
"I don't envy you or the base [commander] right now having to
deal with a
grenade in the G-6 with fragments everywhere and I certainly
don't envy me
trying to sort through this investigation," Col. Michael
Warlick, an officer
who investigated some of the allegations, wrote in an e-mail
message last
month to Cavazos, a copy of which was produced by Quantico
officials during
one of the investigations. "My head is literally spinning trying
to put it in
perspective."
The allegations concerning Anderson date to her arrival at the
section in
June as a planner and her promotion a month later to deputy
director.
At an initial meeting with the captain who filed the harassment
charge, the
complaint states, Anderson spoke inappropriately, asking the
officer, "You
ever have sex with a really ugly woman?"
Later in the same meeting, according to the captain, Anderson
jumped into his
lap and reached for his crotch.
"I won't ask what this is about," a female lieutenant who walked
in on the
scene said, according to the account in the complaint.
A male sergeant complained that Anderson's behavior made him
uncomfortable,
but that he was afraid to confront her out of fear of
retaliation, according
to the complaint.
The allegations illustrate how working relationships between
civilian and
military employees sometimes can be contentious, particularly
when officers
are subordinate to civilians. The complaining captain said he
was humiliated
by Anderson's treatment. "We do not treat civilian employees in
this
fashion," he wrote. "I do not understand why Marines must accept
this
behavior from civilian employees."
Chief Warrant Officer Harold Stonier, who worked in the section,
said
Anderson's alleged behavior was her way of garnering obedience.
"It was about
power," Stonier said. "It was about embarrassing these guys into
doing what
she said without question."
Stonier has filed separate complaints alleging that G-6
commanders improperly
charged monthly phone fees to various tenant organizations at
Quantico. An
initial investigation last summer backed some of Stonier's
contentions, but a
second, more formal probe found that the charges were proper.
Nonetheless,
Hendrickson, the base commander, may request an outside audit,
Campbell said.
© 2000 The Washington Post Company
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