THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 15, 1997 TAG: 9701150006
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 32 lines
Jack Dorsey's Jan. 11 article detailing the limbo into which Capt. Ronald L. Christenson, ex-commanding officer of the Roosevelt, has fallen and the comment that 15 naval officers were relieved of command during 1996 must be causing all military officers to quizzically contemplate the current nature of their profession.
During the past few years, we have had Air Force generals relieved because a secretary of commerce, apparently selling seats on an Air Force plane, insisted on flying in inclement weather - and crashed; a fleet admiral was ignominously retired because of a patently true, but apparently politically incorrect, comment; a flock of naval aviators was reviled and chastised because of ungentlemanly conduct carried out pretty much in the privacy of their own convention; and a slew of Army officers and senior enlisted people is being court- martialed for ``sexual harassment,'' many on mere allegation.
Meanwhile, their commander in chief tried to slither out of a rather sordid sexual-harassment charge by having his lawyer claim that the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act protects him from prosecution while he is on ``active duty''! And that same CIC is up to his eyeballs in a variety of illegal acts, from ``Filegate'' to ``Whitewatergate.''
I guess that only in military life is a commander to be held responsible for his own conduct as well as the conduct of his entire command. I was taught to lead by example. Is that what our commander in chief is doing?
JAMES ROBISON
Edenton, N.C. Jan. 11, 1997