
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 15, 1994                    TAG: 9406150442 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A13    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940615                                 LENGTH: WASHINGTON

PEASE SAID TO BE NEW PENTAGON SPOKESMAN\

{LEAD} Rear Adm. Kendall Pease, the Navy's chief of information, is a leading candidate to become chief spokesman for the entire Defense Department, sources said this week, but he may first have to clear the long shadow of an old Naval Academy classmate: Oliver L. North.

Pease declined comment Tuesday on his possible job shift, first reported in Monday's Washington Post.

{REST} But other sources confirmed that Pease, who has served in Norfolk as senior spokesman for the Atlantic Fleet, is a finalist in Defense Secretary William Perry's search for a replacement for Pentagon spokeswoman Kathleen Delaski.

The sources suggested Pease faces opposition, or at least suspicion, from other services wary of having a Navy man speak for the entire defense establishment. Pease recently was tapped for a second admiral's star and is said to have made it clear that he will not retire from active duty to take Delaski's job, a post usually held by a civilian.

Another problem for Pease could be a fleeting association in the mid-1980s with a legal defense fund for North, then facing charges for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Pease and North are both graduates of the academy's class of 1968. As class president, Pease apparently was contacted by other Annapolis grads seeking to establish a North defense fund as a class project. Friends say he quickly nixed that idea as inappropriate but provided some informal public relations advice to those who ultimately established the fund on their own.

North, who as a Marine lieutenant colonel helped plan and carry out the arms-for-hostages swap at the heart of the Iran-Contra scandal, ultimately was convicted of lying to Congress about the affair. His aggressive televised defense of the scheme in congressional hearings made him a celebrity to millions of Americans, however, and since his conviction was reversed he has embarked on a political career.

Nominated by Virginia Republicans this month for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Charles S. Robb, North has helped create what apparently will be a four-way race involving Republican-turned-independent J. Marshall Coleman and Democrat-turned-independent L. Douglas Wilder.

by CNB