THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 26, 1994 TAG: 9408260623
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
A Marine Corps general is expected to gain the top post with the U.S. Atlantic Command, a job traditionally held by the Navy.
Lt. Gen. John J. Sheehan, operations director with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is to be nominated for promotion to four-star rank and assigned to USACOM's Norfolk headquarters, The Virginian-Pilot has learned.
The command's area of responsibility covers 45 million square miles - most of the globe except the Pacific and Far East. USACOM is carrying out President Clinton's policy in regions including Haiti and Cuba, Bosnia, the Middle East and southern Africa.
Officials with USACOM said Thursday they could not confirm the nomination.
USACOM's current commander-in-chief, Adm. Paul David Miller, is planning to retire Oct. 31.
For the Marine Corps to head such a prestigious command - now considered one of the most important in the defense establishment - was unexpected. The smallest of all service branches, the corps rarely gets such an opportunity.
A recent exception is Marine Gen. Joseph P. Hoar, who served as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla.
Hoar is retiring, leaving the Marines with only two four-star generals - Gen. Carl E. Mundy Jr., the commandant, and Gen. Richard D. Hearney, assistant commandant.
If Sheehan's promotion is confirmed by the Senate, he would become the Marine's third four-star general on active duty.
Speculation in the past had been that Miller's replacement would come from the ranks of the Army or Air Force, even though the command has been considered a maritime command for nearly 50 years.
The change stems from expanded responsibilities at USACOM. Last October, under Miller's guidance, the command began overseeing training and deployment of all military personnel stationed in the continental United States.
The position of commander-in-chief also carries NATO responsibilities as Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic.
Sheehan had a national audience Thursday when he made an appearance at a regular Pentagon press briefing to report the latest developments at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba, where Cuban refugees are being housed.
Ceremonies for the command change and retirement are tentatively scheduled in Norfolk aboard the Enterprise, the nation's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
The ship is nearing the end of a four-year refueling and overhaul at Newport News Shipbuilding. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Lt. Gen. John J. Sheehan - photographed off TV in a briefing
Thursday - is operations director with the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Graphic
LT. GEN. SHEEHAN
Age: 54
Born: Aug. 23, 1940, in Sommerville, Mass.
Education: Boston College, 1962; master's degree, Georgetown
University.
Military: Senior adviser, Vietnamese Marine Corps during Vietnam
War; served with the Army for a year at Fort Bragg, N.C.; company
commander at Camp Lejeune, N.C.; in 1988, assigned as commanding
general, 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Little Creek Naval
Amphibious Base; in Desert Storm, served aboard command ship Blue
Ridge as commander, U.S. Marine Central; 1991-93, director, plans
and policy directorate, USACOM in Norfolk.
by CNB