Three generations of women from Dee Bondu's family made the trip, driving 13 hours to Maine from their home in Prince George's County, crammed in her mother's burgundy Crown Victoria. After 18 years, they were not going to miss it.

Inside the National Guard armory in Portland, Bondu, 36, spotted a man in a Washington Redskins sweat shirt walking down the hallway in their direction. It was Navy Yeoman Chief Petty Officer Theodis Walker. "He didn't know we were coming," Bondu said. "I stepped in front of him. 'You know who I am? I'm your daughter's mother.' "

Walker looked astonished, she recalled. Bondu gestured to Davida, 18, who stood glowering nearby. "Theodis, meet your daughter, Davida. Davida, meet your sperm donor, Theodis." Davida Bondu and Theodis Walker had nothing to say to each other. But that did not spoil Dee Bondu's day. Walker was finally taking a court-ordered paternity test, and Bondu knew what it would show.

As a result of the test, Walker acknowledged that he is Davida Bondu's father, and in October, he began making monthly payments for her support. Walker, 37, who is now married and has been described by Navy commanders as "an outstanding performer" and "a devoted family man," had avoided a paternity test for 18 years, taking advantage of legal protections afforded service members. Reached in Puerto Rico, where he is on temporary duty, Walker declined to comment.

Officials with the Navy and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services say a concerted effort in recent years has significantly improved service members' compliance with child support orders. An executive order signed by President Clinton in 1995 directed the federal government, including the military, to serve as a model in honoring orders for child support and establishing paternity.

But Dee Bondu's experience illustrates major loopholes that remain for military members, particularly in cases where paternity has not been established. Service members living on military installations have a legal right under federal law to refuse attempts to serve them with legal papers. That can help them evade court-ordered paternity tests or summonses to appear in court.

"It's a frustrating system," said a Navy legal officer who is well versed in military paternity cases and who spoke on condition that he not be identified.

Walker "used the Navy to hide," said Heidi Gider, an outreach worker with HALT, a Washington-based legal reform organization that aided Bondu in her fight.

Nor is Bondu alone in experiencing such difficulties. "The most common type of phone call we get is people having problems with the military," said Gerri Jensen, president of the Association for Children for Enforcement of Support, a nonprofit child support organization.

"There are many things that should have been done over 18 years to help this woman," Jensen added.

Bondu, a soft-spoken woman who has epilepsy and has relied on welfare to raise Davida, prevailed in this case only because of steely determination, Gider and others said. "There are probably a whole lot of other women with the same problem," Bondu said.

Government officials say Bondu's case does not represent a widespread problem, though there are no figures showing how often service members use their legal protections to refuse paternity tests.

Bondu's mother, Sylvia Moore, who accompanied her daughter to Maine in March and stood by her for 18 years, said the Navy owes something to her daughter and granddaughter. "I would like to see an explanation of how they allowed this situation to exist for so long," she said.

Although they attended different high schools in Washington -- Walker was at Dunbar and Deidre[acute] Bondu attended McKinley -- they lived as teenagers in the same apartment building on North Capitol Street. They started dating when they were sophomores, Bondu said, and she became pregnant in June 1981, just as they were completing their senior year.

But Walker had already planned to join the Navy and enlisted soon after graduation. After undergoing training, he was assigned to a ship based in San Diego.

Davida was born in March 1982, and two months later, Dee Bondu and her mother -- who studied law at Howard University -- filed a petition in D.C. Superior Court to establish paternity. Walker was ordered by the court to appear at a hearing.

A Navy legal officer sent the court a letter saying that "Walker has doubts that he is the father of the child in question and wishes to settle the matter in court."

After appearing at an initial hearing in October 1982, Walker did not respond to any letters requesting blood testing, according to a court petition filed by the D.C. corporation counsel on behalf of Davida Bondu in July 1984.

A D.C. Superior Court judge in August 1984 ordered Walker to submit to blood testing in Washington. But no testing took place, and the case was dismissed in March 1985 because of a lack of activity, court records show.

Bondu went forward with the task of raising Davida. She had hoped to become a teacher but dropped out of the University of the District of Columbia after two years to care for Davida. "It just got to be too much," Bondu said. She ended up on welfare.

For Davida, there were practical consequences beyond growing up without a father's love. Walker's Navy job would have entitled her to military health care and other benefits, but she was denied those, along with financial support.

For years, Bondu did not know where Walker was stationed. "I didn't know how to find him," she said. Finally, in 1994, Bondu asked a woman at her church who was in the Naval Reserve for help finding Walker. "The next Sunday, she came back with the information," Bondu said. Walker was stationed at Naval Air Station Cecil Field in Jacksonville, Fla.

Bondu, who was living in Fort Washington, filed a petition in Prince George's County Circuit Court, seeking support. After coordinating with Prince George's, a court in Duval County, Fla. issued a summons for Walker in August 1995. But when sheriff's deputies went to his address, they found he had moved to Navy housing and could not be served.

The federal statute that shielded Walker is aimed at protecting against the extension of state jurisdiction onto federal property, a Navy official said. Another law, the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act, protects service members from some legal claims while serving their country, but under the terms of Clinton's executive order, it does not extend to child support issues except in times of war or crisis, said an HHS spokesman.

Most service members in situations such as Walker's ultimately agree to accept the attempts of process servers to deliver legal documents, according to the Navy legal officer. "But if the intent is to dodge service, he can dodge service," the officer said. "He's got somewhat of an umbrella."

Because papers could not be served on Walker, a Florida judge dismissed the case in April 1997.

During this time, the Navy offered little cooperation, child support records indicate. "When he was in Florida, the Navy never responded to any communication from the courts," Bondu said. "Never. Not once."

Bondu, however, refused to give up, writing letters to the secretary of the Navy and members of Congress. "She's just strong inside," said Moore, Bondu's mother.

In the fall of 1998, Bondu called Walker's office in Jacksonville. "I was told he'd been assigned to a ship, it was top secret and he'd be gone three years," she said. When she called again weeks later, she learned that Walker had actually been transferred to the Naval Air Station in Brunswick, Maine.

Bondu pursued the case with Navy officials in Maine but had no success.

"Please be advised that . . . Walker has denied paternity of your child," Cmdr. Brian Roberts, a Navy legal officer representing Walker, wrote to Bondu. "Walker has been advised that he need not provide any monetary support for Davida until a civil court of competent jurisdiction has adjudged him to be the father of your child."

Roberts also advised Walker not to submit a blood sample until ordered by a court, according to Navy correspondence.

For Bondu, it was too much. "For 16 years Chief Walker . . . has adamantly refused and continues to refuse to make himself available to appear in court so that paternity may be established," she replied in a letter. "Explain to him that the easiest and quickest way to put this issue to rest is for him to be a responsible man."

After Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.) inquired on Bondu's behalf, Walker's commander in Maine responded that there was little the Navy could do.

"As commanding officer, I cannot order Chief Walker to submit to paternity tests nor can I order him to support dependents," Cmdr. Richard Goodwyn wrote in December 1999. "Since the service of process is out of state, Chief Walker also retains the right to refuse acceptance of process."

Goodwyn also called Walker, now married, "a devoted family man. He has never shirked responsibility and will cooperate with any decision made by the court."

This added insult to injury, as far as Bondu was concerned. "He's devoted to who he wants," she said. "Never shirked his responsibility, that's a crock, too."

According to Goodwyn's letter, Walker told Navy officials that Bondu had refused at the 1982 hearing in D.C. Superior Court to allow the drawing of a blood sample from her daughter, but there is nothing in D.C. court records to substantiate that.

"If I didn't want one, why would I have chased him for 18 years?" said Bondu.

The big break came earlier this year, when the Maine Department of Human Services, after hearing from Bondu and HALT, began a paternity proceeding against Walker. A sheriff's deputy sent to serve the papers found Walker living with his family off base.

Walker was served Feb. 13, a Sunday morning, less than a month before Davida's 18th birthday. Had that date passed, it would have been too late to pursue a paternity case against Walker. "He almost weaseled out," Bondu said.

Test results in April found the probability that Walker is Davida Bondu's father to be 99.97 percent. In May, Walker signed a document acknowledging paternity.

Walker has begun making payments of $ 304 a month but under Maine law is liable only for the past six years. Dee Bondu said she will file suit in Maine to collect payment for the first 12 years of Davida's life.

Once paternity is established, the military ensures that child support orders are honored by deducting payment from wages, a system that often works better than in the civilian world.

Davida Bondu graduated last year from Oxon Hill High School as an honor student in the science and technology program and captain of the majorette team and has just completed her first semester at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. She said she has no interest in establishing a relationship with her father. "I don't have anything to say to him," she said.

That, in the end, may be Theodis Walker's biggest loss, said Dee Bondu.

"If this man knew what kind of child she was, he would be proud to have her as his daughter," said Bondu. "If he'd known her, he'd have his chest stuck out so far, saying, 'My girl. My girl.' "