THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 8, 1996 TAG: 9602080364
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
The Norfolk-based U.S. Atlantic Command has lost a Pentagon power struggle and must give up its responsibility for American military operations in the Caribbean and part of the South Atlantic, officials announced Wednesday.
But President Clinton and Defense Secretary William Perry may have softened the blow somewhat by delaying much of the change until next year - at the earliest.
Perry's office said Wednesday that authority for coastal waters around Central and South America was shifted Jan. 1 from the Atlantic Command to the Southern Command, based in Panama. The Caribbean will be shifted to the Southern Command sometime after June 1, 1997, the announcement added. The Southern Command previously covered only the land mass of Central and South America.
``This change satisfies two key objectives,'' the Pentagon said. ``The first is to enhance Southern Command's interaction with the navies of Central and South American nations. The second is to have one commander control all U.S. military activities in the Caribbean basin and Central and South America.''
Pentagon sources have said Marine Gen. John J. Sheehan, head of the Atlantic Command, aggressively lobbied against the change. Sheehan was unavailable for comment Wednesday, but apparently in response to his arguments, the shift was delayed in the Caribbean.
And by setting no firm date for implementing the change in the Caribbean, Perry and Clinton left open the possibility that the issue may be revisited. Under federal law, the military's ``unified command plan,'' which divides the responsibilities of senior commanders, must be reviewed periodically.
Perry's announcement cited ``the long-standing Caribbean associations of the U.S. Atlantic Command, including the ongoing United Nations operation in Haiti and counterdrug operations throughout the region,'' in explaining the delay.
As head of the Atlantic Command, Sheehan has directed the U.S. military's much praised operation in Haiti since shortly after American forces occupied the island in 1994. The U.S. military is out of Haiti, but Atlantic Command forces continue to support a U.N. effort to rebuild that country.
The adjustment in the unified command plan was a subject of quiet debate in the Pentagon for much of 1995. Under a reorganization implemented in the 1980s, the six unified commanders are among the nation's most powerful uniformed officers. Each commander is responsible for all American military operations - Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force - within his area. by CNB