THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 6, 1995 TAG: 9512060010
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
It's time top government officials let our admirals and generals perform the jobs for which they have the unique training and experience. It's time to stop destroying their careers over political trivialities rather than job performance.
Another admiral - this time, Adm. Richard Macke - has been forced to retire for nothing more serious than observing that paying for sex (which happens every minute of every day throughout the world) would have been better than raping a young girl. Although that rape, for which three of our servicemen are being tried in Japan, was a reprehensible act, Admiral Macke's comment was harmless, insulted no one and, most important, was true. For that we should destroy an admiral's career?
When we consider, however, the absurd extreme to which political correctness has dominated the thinking of our highest government officials, and when we consider that they have been pretending for years - pretending that placing women aboard ship has not undermined discipline, pretending that the women who attended the Tailhook convention did not know exactly why they had traveled hundreds of miles to Las Vegas. It should not surprise us that they are now pretending that the idea of sailors paying for sex while ashore is a novel one. Admiral Macke just thought of it in a careless moment, right?
Admiral Macke now joins the ranks of Admirals Arthur, Mauz, Kelso and Dunleavy - some of the most distinguished individuals of our generation - in being forced into retirement over a trivial issue. Consider the waste of talent and, more important in these lean budgetary times, consider the waste of taxpayers' dollars. For Secretary of Defense William Perry, I have but one comment: Wake up! You have a nation to defend.
MICHAEl F. COHEN
Virginia Beach, Nov. 18, 1995 by CNB