THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 26, 1996 TAG: 9605230013
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 27 lines
What good end was served by dogging an obviously good and desperately needed man over a couple of ``combat V's''?
My sister, in a Florida billet with the Navy, contacted me in tears the evening of the tragedy. Her words: ``He was the finest chief of naval operations we have ever had, and the most ``people person.'' He was the example our troops looked up to.'' She told me that she loved this man she'd never met. She's pretty low on the military ladder by Washington standards, but she certainly had the measure of the man, and I bet that millions of her Navy mates feel as she does.
I'm not in the Navy. I don't understand how things are done in the Navy. But I am a compassionate human being. I do understand this: Weighed against Admiral Boorda's compassion, obvious love for his Navy and its people, and an equally obvious desire to get that Navy house in order, the alleged unauthorized wearing of two ``combat V's'' is almost ridiculously insignificant. And I hope that those who helped throw this man to the ground have the grace to feel partly responsible, because, in my mind, they are.
MARY TODD
Virginia Beach, May 17, 1996 by CNB