THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 25, 1996 TAG: 9605240027
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By DAVID SILVERBERG
LENGTH: 78 lines
I met Adm. Jeremy ``Mike'' Boorda, who committed suicide last week, briefly, at a House Appropriations hearing. He was very friendly, greeted me warmly and told me he was using material from Armed Forces Journal International in his testimony because we had spoken so much more eloquently than he could. He told me he enjoyed my writing and looked forward to reading it.
I'll add to the chorus of voices who have said that losing Boorda is a great loss to the country and that he was a caring individual who, at the height of the Navy hierarchy, never forgot those at its bottom.
Where does the Navy go from here? This is clearly a troubled service. The Army, Air Force and Marine Corps may occasionally run into difficulties, but, however unpleasant their problems, they seem to pick themselves up, dust themselves off and roll along despite it. The Navy appears to lurch from shoal to shoal, each difficulty causing it to sink completely and then salvaging itself only to sail into another spectacular disaster.
Partially this seems to be the result of the navy culture which appears more rigid and tradition-bound than the other services. It's a culture without tolerance for mistakes. In part this is understandable, since making a mistake at sea can be catastrophic, but in peacetime it leaves little latitude for experimentation or human error.
But it's also the result of a national culture that, in its post-1960s feminism, relaxed moral standards and distrust of institutions and is completely at odds with a traditional, maritime, male culture of clear standards and straightforward procedures whose highest good is fighting and winning the nation's wars.
More high-ranking naval personnel have been casualties of this culture war than any combat since Vietnam: Navy Secretary Lawrence Garrett resigned in the wake of Tailhook. Adm. Frank Kelso, with 35 years of service, also fell victim to Tailhook. Admiral Macke, commander in the Pacific, was forced to resign for an offhand remark about hiring prostitutes. A Coast Guard captain (another maritime service) recently committed suicide when he was being investigated for sexual harassment, and now Admiral Boorda is dead as a result of a media investigation.
The danger in all this is that when the time comes to fight, the Navy - or any of the services - will be so paralyzed and politicized it either won't be able to fight or it will fight ineffectively.
With the Navy particularly, its highest ranks will be frozen with fear of a political or cultural gaffe, and its middle ranks, particularly in naval aviation, which is tainted by Tailhook, will have undergone a near Stalinist purge, eliminating its most experienced and effective members.
It seems that the time has come for everyone to step back, stand down and take a deep breath. It's time for the media to stop judging and covering the military the same way it judges and covers politicians. It may realize that it's dealing with a different culture and different priorities which are slowly changing but will need to be cut some slack.
It's time for members of Congress to stop using the military as a social laboratory of either the left or the right and endlessly punishing it for cultural and social sins. Cultural and social change in the military should really be managed by the professionals who can manage it without inhibiting combat effectiveness.
Perhaps if everyone showed a bit more tolerance and there was more of an assumption of good will on everyone's part, Admiral Boorda would not have automatically assumed that a media investigation into his record would result in disaster.
We can play all these games now because there is no overarching threat or imminent danger. But we will have to be cognizant that the games we play now will have their impact later. Ultimately, the only rea will come on the day that the nation has to pres itself and its military has to fight.
Admiral Boorda was trying to adapt the Navy to the country's cultural currents while ensuring that when the day of battle came, his Navy would be ready.
One would hope that instead of recrimination and blame, his legacy is an end to the culture wars, greater tolerance among those institutions that debate on and govern the nation's defense, and a military - particularly a Navy - that can effectively protect and defend the country that created it. MEMO: David Silverberg is editor at large of Armed Forces International.
This is reprinted with permission from The Hill, a weekly newspaper that
covers Capitol Hill. by CNB