Samuel Nunn: “our committee spends an extensive amount of time reviewing nominations on the issue of accountability. Our actions in…”

“our committee spends an extensive amount of time reviewing nominations on the issue of accountability. Our actions in the Tailhook matter are a prime example. All Navy and Marine Corps nominations were held up by our committee. The Senator from Virginia and I made the joint announcement when we found that the investigation was going awry, and the Senator from California, who now occupies the chair, I remember, was very much involved and attentive to that at that time because she called me and wrote me a very nice letter about it. All Navy and Marine Corps nominations were held up until a process was put in place to ensure that the committee obtained all the information necessary to assess every officer's accountability and responsibility with respect to the operation or scenario we call Tailhook symposium. Every one of them was held up. We disrupted the whole promotion system of the Navy for a matter of months because we were disturbed, because we felt that the investigation had not been handled properly, and because we were demanding accountability.”