Inquiry Into General’s Use of Aircraft Continues

EL TORO — With the commander of the Marines’ Western air bases still in Washington for a fourth day of meetings over his use of military aircraft, investigators on Monday pored over flight records and continued their inquiry into the general’s conduct.

The Marine Corps inspector general’s office has set no time limit for its investigation into the flights of Brig. Gen. Wayne T. Adams, who is based at the Marine Corps Air Station here.

“The investigation is continuing,” Col. Jim Williams, deputy inspector general for the Marine Corps, who has taken part in the interviews of Adams, said Monday. “At this point, we’re looking at records.”

Adams flew to Washington last Tuesday and met with Marine Corps investigators from Wednesday through Friday, officials said.

The investigators, headed by Inspector General Hollis Davison, are trying to determine whether Adams violated a ban on personal flights when he took at least five trips around the country that were detailed last month in a Times article.

Among the trips were a stop in Florida during which the general signed his divorce decree and another in which he was shuttled between the El Toro air station and Big Bear for a military inspection and a vacation with his fiancee.

These trips came just weeks before Adams, who heads the Marine Corps’ four Western air bases at El Toro, Tustin, Camp Pendleton and Yuma, Ariz., suspended two of his top aides for alleged misuse of base planes earlier this year. One of the aides, Col. James Sabow, killed himself in the midst of the inquiry.