SERGEANTS AT ODDS

By MARK THOMPSON

Nearly half a million soldiers began marching to their TVs last week to watch an Army-issued video in which their leaders declare war on sexual harassment. "I expect all environments to be free of sexual harassment," Sergeant Major of the Army Gene McKinney barks sternly into the camera. "There's absolutely no place for sexual harassment in America's Army."

So soldiers and generals alike were dumbfounded last week when McKinney's former public relations aide, retired Sergeant Major Brenda Hoster, charged that McKinney had sexually harassed her. McKinney serves in one of the Army's most revered posts and is supposed to be the role model and champion of the service's 410,000 enlisted men and women. His office is situated in the Pentagon's prestigious E-Ring, right across the hall from General Dennis Reimer, the four-star Army Chief of Staff. The Army denied the charges on McKinney's behalf, and has no plans to dump his video.

Hoster's accusation could do more damage to the Army's image than the multiple probes now under way of drill sergeants who allegedly assaulted female trainees at Maryland's Aberdeen Proving Ground and other bases. Last week General Reimer told a Senate committee that among those 170 trainers there are "a few bad apples." But Hoster's allegations, if true, suggest a more pervasive rot. "Because of Aberdeen, the non-commissioned officers are the part of the Army under the most scrutiny for sexual harassment," says military sociologist Charles Moskos. "When the sergeant major of the Army, the top NCO, is accused, it symbolically represents the entire NCO corps," the band of veteran soldiers who bridge the gap between officer and grunt.

McKinney, 46, is not just any NCO. A highly decorated, 28-year veteran who served with the infantry in Vietnam, he rose through every enlisted Army leadership position before reaching its peak. Four of his brothers have worn Army green and his identical twin James is sergeant major of the Army's Training and Doctrine Command, overseeing troops at Aberdeen and the Army's other training bases.

Unlike the rookie soldiers who came forward at Aberdeen, Hoster, 39, is no raw recruit. A Bronze Star winner and ex-drill sergeant, she was one of the youngest sergeant majors ever. Hoster told TIME last week that McKinney called her in May 1995 and, even though he didn't know her well, asked her to be his p.r. adviser. Within weeks of taking the job, Hoster says, his "Jekyll and Hyde behavior"--personable and professional in public, enraged and profane in private--turned her life into "a living hell." Things only got worse in March when Zuberi, 18, the son and only child of McKinney and his wife Mina, died in a car crash.

Hoster accompanied the couple last April to a week-long Army meeting in Hawaii. According to Hoster's version of events, she grew concerned at 11:30 one night when McKinney, clad in gym shorts and a T shirt, entered her eighth-floor room in a military-owned hotel on Waikiki Beach and ordered a male colleague out. "You know, you're just what I need right now," the 6 ft. 2 in. McKinney said, leaning over to kiss his 5 ft. 4 in. aide. Hoster, in denim shorts and a T shirt, recoiled and told him to leave. "Your lovely wife is right down the hall, and that's where you need to go," she said. "What I need is you," he countered, telling her that she was getting him excited. He put his hands on the waistband of his shorts, as if offering a peek. "I could take you right here, right now," he said. "If you do such a stupid thing, you better kill me, because if I live, I will tell," she said. Hoster scooted to the door, opened it and implored him to leave. He strode to the door, shut it, grabbed her by the waist and lifted her off the floor. "What a nice body you have," he said. After 20 minutes, and half a dozen requests, he finally left.

Several weeks later, after pondering her options, Hoster complained to two male superiors and asked for a reassignment. In August, her pleas unanswered for two months, she retired to Texas after 22 years in uniform. She says she decided to file a formal complaint only recently, after Army Secretary Togo West Jr. named McKinney to an Army panel charged with combatting sexual harassment. Following Hoster's action, McKinney left the panel until the case is resolved. West says he didn't know of the accusation until last week.

Hoster actually called the Army's harassment hotline in November but hung up without giving her name after a frustrating exchange with its untrained staff (such calls have sparked more than 1,100 Army criminal probes since last fall). About that same time, McKinney went to Aberdeen to tell the troops that the Army knows how to fight sexual harassment. "The system we have works," McKinney told them. And then he urged abused Army women to speak up. "If soldiers want to fix the issue," he said, "they must come forth."