Tradition Aweigh

Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo Zumwalt has banished bell-bottoms and allowed sideburns to lengthen and beards to flourish among his men. However, these will be but footnotes to his reputation as a radical admiral if two members of Congress get their wish: Michigan Congressman Jack McDonald and New York Senator Jacob Javits want the Navy to admit women to Annapolis. Both Republican legislators plan to nominate coeds for admission to the Naval Academy, for 126 years the all-male training ground of Navy officers.

The two nominees possess formidable credentials. Valerie Schoen, an 18-year-old freshman majoring in Russian at the University of Michigan, graduated from high school with a near-perfect academic record. Her experience on the water is likewise impressive: she has a certificate from the Coast Guard Auxiliary for basic seamanship and has won awards for more than 400 miles of canoeing. Her application to Annapolis "all started as a joke," but Congressman McDonald took it seriously and included her name in his list of nominations.

Senator Javits, the first Senator to nominate a girl for the coveted job of Senate page, this week will announce that his principal appointment to Annapolis will be a woman. His nominee is Barbara Jo Brimmer, 17, of Staatsburg, N.Y., an A student and New York State Regents scholar who came by her interest in Annapolis naturally: her father is an Annapolis graduate and her mother was once a WAVE officer. Brimmer has been the subject of a lengthy debate between Javits and Secretary of the Navy John Chaffee. Argued Javits: "I seek only to have the academy conform to the Navy itself. Some 3.6% of naval officers are women. Shouldn't a similar percentage of Annapolis' entering class and graduates also be women? Shouldn't there at least be one?" Chaffee replied that U.S. law provided for the Navy to admit "sons" of servicemen killed in action, and he interpreted that narrow slice of law to limit the academy's general enrollment to men only. In addition, Chaffee argued, naval regulations prohibit women from attending Annapolis. Javits' reply: The law "simply provides that the Secretary of the Navy shall be in charge of the Navy--and says nothing about excluding women."

Navy officials have yet to rule finally on the applications, begging lack of facilities for women at Annapolis as another barrier to admitting the two nominees. It is an argument that did not restrain Yale or Princeton from going coeducational; perhaps the answer lies in moving the WAVE officer-training school into companion quarters on Chesapeake Bay and establishing coordinate campuses.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.