The Servicemembers' Legal Defense Network requested the investigation July 4 on behalf of four Hickam airmen who had been named by Senior Airman Bryan S. Harris as men whom he had sex with. Others identified by Harris included three Army soldiers and eight Navy sailors and Marine Corps members.

Harris, then a member of the 324th Intelligence Squadron at Wheeler Army Air Field, pleaded guilty to sodomy, assault, indecent assault and solicitation of an Air Force member to make a false statement on Jan. 30, 1996.

In exchange for a lesser sentence, Harris, 26, named 17 service members, including five from the Air Force, with whom he claimed to have engaged in sex acts. The Air Force report said Harris willingly volunteered the names as part of a pretrial agreement.

Harris was given a bad conduct discharge, a 30-month sentence and was reduced in rank to airman basic, the lowest grade in the Air Force. Because of the agreement, his sentence in the Ford Island brig was reduced to 20 months.

Since then, the four Hickam airmen were given honorable discharges last year. None of the four has been identified.

The fifth person, Air Force Capt. Robert Saragosa, faces a court-martial "based upon his status as an officer and the seriousness of his alleged fraternization with enlisted personnel," the report states.

Saragosa's court-martial was delayed in October pending the outcome of the inspector general's investigation.

An Air Force judge in October also ruled that Harris' plea agreement did not violate the Defense Department's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on homosexuals. In rejecting pretrial motions by Saragosa's attorneys, the court-martial panel said Saragosa's case is about sexual misconduct and fraternization and not about the Pentagon's policy.

Saragosa is charged with sodomy, conduct unbecoming an officer and fraternization.

The Servicemembers' Legal Defense Network organization maintained that Hickam investigators exceeded their authority by questioning co-workers of the service members named by Harris and by trying to interview active-duty members of the other military services.

The report said the interviews were held during the preparation for the administrative discharge hearing involving one of the enlisted Air Force personnel named by Harris. The name of the airman was blotted out in the copy of the report released to the media.

"Several of these questions created confusion in the minds of the (blanked out) co-workers as to the scope of the inquiry and whether conclusions about sexual orientation were being solicited," the report said.

The purpose of the questions was to identify evidence needed to disprove any assertions the airman might have made during the hearing, the report adds.

Over the past two years, the report said, there have only been two courts-martial at Hickam involving sodomy: Harris' and Saragosa's.

There have been seven recommendations for administrative discharges as a result of homosexual acts. Six of the cases resulted in discharges.