Eight military policewomen stationed at West Point have been discharged from the Army for what officials said were homosexual activities, the United States Military Academy said today.
The women, who were not cadets, were ''administratively discharged at various times during the summer,'' as investigations were completed, according to Col. John P. Yeagley, a West Point spokesman.
''The investigation included witnesses and other evidence,'' Colonel Yeagley said, and was not just a case of individual interviews. The women lived in barracks on the academy grounds and were the first, he said, to have been discharged under those circumstances.
There are about 800 soldiers at West Point, providing logistical and administrative requirements of the military academy. The military police company had 153 members, 35 of them women, before the eight accused were forced to leave.
The women were discharged under chapter 15 of Army regulation 635-200, which deals with separation as a result of homosexual activity. They were given general discharges under honorable conditions, which fall short of honorable discharges.
Army officials declined to provide details of the investigation, which was conducted by a contingent of the Army's Criminal Investigation Division stationed at West Point. A battallion commander, Lieut. Col. Morgan Roseborough, reviewed the evidence and decided on the separations.
He said the accused women can appeal the decisions to the Army Board for Correction of Military Records, where panels of civilian lawyers working in the office of the Secretary of the Army consider the cases. The next stage of appeal is the Federal District Court and the civilian judicial system.