THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 17, 1996 TAG: 9605170652
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN AND JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long : 218 lines
Adm. Jeremy ``Mike'' Boorda, who as the nation's top naval officer was struggling to lead the service out of an era marred by scandals, died Thursday after shooting himself in the chest outside his home at the Washington Navy Yard.
The 56-year-old four-star admiral was pronounced dead at 2:30 p.m., almost 30 minutes after other personnel at the Navy Yard heard a single shot and rushed to his aid. He was taken to nearby D.C. General Hospital, but efforts there were to no avail.
Although Navy officials did not confirm the cause of death, two notes were found at Boorda's residence, said Rear Adm. Kendell Pease, the Navy's senior public affairs officer. Police did not reveal their contents.
Aides said Boorda had been his usual, upbeat self in recent weeks, giving no sign that he was under any unusual strain. But after a morning of meetings in the Pentagon, he turned away lunch at his desk and said he was going home to eat. Boorda planned to return in time for a 2:30 p.m. interview with reporters for Newsweek magazine, Pease said.
Shortly before he decided to leave, Boorda had been told the journalists would be asking about his former wearing of a military decoration given for valor in combat.
Pease said Boorda ``obviously was concerned'' about the inquiry, and the two men spent several minutes discussing it before Boorda went home.
``He asked me, `What do we do?' Pease recalled later, ``then he answered his own question - `tell 'em the truth.' ''
The decoration involved is a small bronze ``V,'' known as a ``combat V.'' Boorda formerly wore two ``V's,'' one pinned to a Navy Commendation Medal he won in 1973 and the other to a Navy Achievement Medal awarded in 1965.
Boorda stopped wearing the ``V's'' about a year ago, a spokesman said, when questions first were raised about his right to do so.
Boorda's written citation for the commendation medal praised his ``meritorious achievement'' while serving as executive officer of the destroyer Brooke from December 1971 through February 1973. Though it referred to his involvement in ``combat operations'' off Vietnam, the citation did not explicitly say Boorda could properly wear the medal with the ``V'' pinned to it.
His citation for the achievement medal also referred to service ``while operating in combat missions'' on the destroyer John R. Craig but again did not explicitly say Boorda could wear the ``V.''
Citations given today typically contain a direct reference to the recipient's right to wear a ``V,'' a Navy spokesman said. And a current regulation specifies that the decoration ``may only be worn if specifically authorized in the (award) citation.'' It was not clear if that was the common practice during the Vietnam era.
Under the military's judicial code, the wearing of unauthorized insignia carries a maximum punishment of a bad-conduct discharge. But sources suggested that a situation like Boorda's would have been treated as a minor offense, if it was an offense at all, and typically would have drawn no more than a reprimand.
Aides said Boorda typically would go home for lunch a few times a month when he was in town. Though a driver was at his disposal, Boorda drove himself home Thursday; a spokesman said that also was not particularly unusual.
Though Boorda's notes were not released, the Washington Post quoted sources saying they indicated he had been driven to take his life by fear that the reputation of the Navy would be further harmed by the disclosures about his medals.
One aide who spent time with Boorda in the hours before the shooting said his boss ``always took seriously'' critical news stories about the Navy and its people. Despite those troubles, Boorda was ``so positive, so enthusiastic, so energetic, so engaged'' about his work, the aide added.
In a speech last month at the U.S. Naval Academy, which has suffered through an embarrassing spring that included the arrest of several midshipmen involved in a car theft ring, Boorda said the service should invite public scrutiny at every level.
``If you . . . feel sorry for yourself because your problems are being reported, then you don't get better,'' he said. ``I'm not going to fall into that trap . . . and neither is anybody here. Write what you will about this place - we will make it better and we will do that with the whole Navy.''
In a statement released by Newsweek, Editor Maynard Parker said the magazine was working on a story that ``called into question the military decorations'' that Boorda had worn. Evan Thomas, the magazine's Washington bureau chief, had just arrived at the Pentagon for the interview when word came that Boorda had been shot.
Retired Army Col. David Hackworth, a highly decorated veteran and frequent Newsweek contributor, apparently raised the most recent questions about Boorda's wearing of the decoration. Hackworth lives in Wyoming and was to join Thomas for the interview but was delayed en route.
``Obviously, we had not published a story and had not reached any conclusions,'' the editor's statement said.
Boorda was found in the side yard of his government quarters, in the southeast portion of the capital. A .38-caliber revolver was recovered nearby.
People in the area heard the gunshot and came immediately to his aid, said a law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity.
``It is a very compact area down there,'' the official said. ``He had help almost immediately.''
The news startled military officers across the nation and the world.
An ``All Navy'' radio message was sent to ships at sea and all naval shore commands disclosing bare details of the tragedy.
Defense Secretary William Perry called Boorda a ``sailor's sailor. At every stage of his career, he put the interests of sailors and their families first.''
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, said Boorda ``was a wise leader, a man of great integrity and character, and a true patriot. I and so many others who have served beside him have lost a great friend.''
Navy Secretary John H. Dalton, who rushed to the hospital after learning of the shooting, said he had met with Boorda on Wednesday. ``He was in great spirits,'' Dalton said. ``He was in excellent spirits.''
Boorda was to have joined President Clinton and other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the White House on Thursday for announcement of an initiative seeking a permanent worldwide ban on land mines. Clinton asked the chiefs if he should go ahead with the announcement after Boorda's death, and they recommended that he do so, aides said.
At the session, Clinton asked for a moment of silence in Boorda's memory, as grim-faced military officers stood behind him. He bowed his head, prayed silently, then whispered, ``Amen.''
``His death is a great loss - not just for the Navy and our armed forces but for our entire country,'' Clinton said.
Earlier, during a discussion with business leaders, television cameras caught Clinton recoiling in shock as an aide handed him a note about the shooting. Reading the note, the president suddenly paled, his shoulders slumped and he grimaced as if in pain.
In Norfolk, Adm. William J. Flanagan Jr., commander in chief of the Atlantic Fleet, expressed the shock of most Navy personnel: ``This is a terrible tragedy for his family, his Navy and his nation. It is a loss we all feel very deeply, and we are greatly saddened.''
From his Pearl Harbor headquarters in Hawaii, Adm. Ronald J. Zlatoper, commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet, called Boorda ``our great helmsman.''
``I am shocked and deeply saddened,'' said Zlatoper. ``Adm. Mike Boorda rose from the enlisted ranks to four stars, served with great distinction as a commander of naval forces at sea, led our Navy through large personnel reductions without breaking faith with our people, and inspired thousands of Navy men and women with his leadership, innovative thinking and caring attitude.
``He was the quintessential sailor, warrior, chief of naval operations and American patriot. The 240,000 sailors, Marines and civilians of the Pacific Fleet join me in mourning his death.''
Clinton, who tapped Boorda to head the Navy in 1994, recalled his efforts in laying the groundwork for the U.S. involvement in Bosnia.
He praised Boorda for his work in Bosnia and for showing ``unwavering concern for the men and women'' of the U.S. military.
As commander of NATO forces in southern Europe, his last post before coming home to lead the Navy, Boorda was in charge of a NATO air strike against four Bosnian Serb aircraft flying in violation of the U.N. ban on fixed-wing flights.
It was the first time a NATO commander had ordered alliance forces on an offensive mission in its 44-year history.
Boorda succeeded Adm. Frank Kelso II as chief of naval operations and had pushed for a somewhat bigger, more robust Navy than Kelso envisioned. Shuffling funds within a tight budget, he delayed the retirement of several frigates to keep the fleet at about 345 ships and was pushing for the development of a new ``arsenal ship'' that is to carry some 500 missile tubes and be manned by a crew of 50 or fewer.
Boorda also lobbied hard for continued development of the Navy's F/A-18 E/F ``Super Hornet,'' an updated attack jet that figures to be the cornerstone of naval aviation for the next 20 years, and for a new attack submarine envisioned as a smaller, cheaper version of the Seawolf subs now under construction.
In recent interviews marking the halfway point of his tenure as the Navy's leader, Boorda had acknowledged that his top challenge was to get the Navy beyond its internal struggle over the changing role of women. The service has suffered through repeated embarrassments concerning sexual harassment since the 1991 Tailhook sexual assault scandal involving Navy aviators.
The Navy also has suffered a series of serious flying accidents, and the Naval Academy is mired in drug-use and other controversies.
Often described as a ``people's admiral,'' Boorda himself had been a controversial figure, as tradition-minded Navy veterans criticized his ``politically correct'' stands against all forms of sexual harassment and his support for opening virtually all Navy jobs to women.
In an April 26 speech to the U.S. Naval Institute in Annapolis, former Navy Secretary James H. Webb charged that the Navy's top officers have lost their ``moral courage,'' abandoning their battle-tested comrades to Tailhook and ``political correctness'' and standing silently by while the fleet has been shrunk.
While not mentioning Boorda by name, Webb said some admirals would rather preserve or promote their careers and curry favor with politicians than support the service.
Webb also charged that Boorda two years ago forced into retirement Adm. Stanley Arthur, then the Navy's vice chief. Arthur had been nominated to take command of all U.S. forces in the Pacific but quit rather than go through what promised to be a protracted Senate battle over his confirmation.
A grandson of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, Boorda was born in South Bend, Ind., and grew up in Chicago. He dropped out of high school and fibbed about his age to join the Navy when he was 17.
He and his wife, Bettie, have four children. Two of his sons and a daughter-in-law are naval officers.
Stunned lawmakers took to the Senate floor to praise Boorda and express their grief.
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, chairman of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, said he was ``in a state of shock.'' He called Boorda ``one of the bright stars'' of the Navy.
Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., the Senate majority whip, noted he had met many top Navy admirals over the years. ``I've never known one better than Mike Boorda,'' he said. ``The men and women of the Navy loved him.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo of medal
Boorda had worn two bronze ``V's,'' pinned to medals he had won, but
written citations didn't explicitly say he could properly attach
those ``V's.''
Map of Washington Navy Yard
ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Military police guard the entrance of the Navy Yard in Washington on
Thursday where Adm. Jeremy Boorda died of a gunshot wound to the
chest. While Navy officials did not confirm the cause of death, they
did say two notes were found at Boorda's residence.
Photo
John H. Dalton...rushed to the hospital after learning of the
shooting, said he had met with Boorda on Wednesday. "He was in great
spirits."
by CNB