THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 4, 1997 TAG: 9702040212
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 78 lines
``I will soon be forgotten,'' a saddened Adm. Jeremy ``Mike'' Boorda predicted in a note typed minutes before he killed himself last May. On Monday, 200 of his relatives, friends and shipmates gathered outside his old office to prove Boorda wrong.
As his widow, Bettie, and successor as the Navy's chief of operations, Adm. Jay L. Johnson, unveiled a photographic portrait of Boorda that will hang in a Pentagon corridor, his old associates shared bittersweet memories of what one called ``the white hot intensity'' of his caring for them and the Navy.
The midmorning ceremony included a sadly ironic reminder of the painful circumstances of Boorda's death, as his widow received six medals, including the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, awarded posthumously to her husband.
The 56-year-old admiral shot himself shortly after learning that reporters were planning to question him about two combat decorations he wore earlier in his career, apparently without proper authorization.
Bettie Boorda, who received the Navy's Distinguished Public Service Award herself, sounded much like her husband as she urged those following him in the Navy to look out for each other. She recalled how Boorda ``always tried to make every duty station better'' than he found it and took pleasure in doing even small things to help make Navy life more bearable.
Once during one tour of duty in Norfolk, she said, Boorda even agreed to serve as chauffeur for a week to the highest bidder in a charity auction. By then a flag officer, he would pick up the winning bidder in the Boorda family's Corvette, driving him to his ship or office. In the afternoon, Boorda would put aside his own duties to escort the winner back to the base gate.
``It was a fun thing to do, because Mike loved that Corvette,'' she said, ``but at the same time we were helping raise money for a scholarship fund.''
Taken by Norfolk photographer William S. McIntosh, the portrait unveiled Monday is a reminder of Boorda's identification with the enlisted sailors from whose ranks he rose. As a blue-shirted sailor stands watch just above and behind him, Boorda is seen leaning against a rail aboard the retired destroyer Barry, moored at the historic Washington Navy Yard.
It ``will help us all remember him in just the right way,'' Johnson said.
``There is that twinkle in his eye that being on a ship always brought out. And there's that smile on his face - it's not really a smile, it's a cross between a smirk and a grin, but it was Mike - that was there whenever he was in the company of his beloved sailors.''
Boorda wore a khaki work uniform, decorated only with his surface warfare pin and an admiral's four stars on either side of his shirt collar, for the photo session. The portrait's informality is particularly striking alongside those of Boorda's predecessors, most in dress whites or blues and their chests ablaze with medals.
Guests for Monday's unveiling included Defense Secretary William S. Cohen, former Secretary William J. Perry, Virginia Sen. John W. Warner, U.S. Rep. Herbert H. Bateman of Newport News, several former CNOs and most of the Navy's senior flag officers.
While none of those who spoke of Boorda Monday directly mentioned the hurt surrounding his death, Undersecretary of the Navy Richard Danzig tried to find a lesson for all in the way he lived and died.
``Mike really was a brother's keeper,'' Danzig said. ``He would invest himself so that if a sailor felt pain, Mike felt pain, if a sailor's family felt pain, Mike felt pain. Every problem was one he was committed to addressing and solving. Sometimes even to a fault, he would attempt to make it all come out right. . . .
``Maybe it is that Mike cared too much. It may be that in the end you can't run life's marathon like a series of sprints and a performance as astounding as this one isn't sustainable.''
Danzig suggested that Boorda's admirers ``take a vow, that if we can't quite care as much as all that, we nonetheless are going to make an effort to care a little bit more. That would really honor Mike.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by ASSOCIATED PRESS
The official Navy portrait of the late Adm. Jeremy ``Mike'' Boorda
is unveiled at the Pentagon Monday by Adm. Jay L. Johnson, left, and
Boorda's widow, Bettie, at right.
KEYWORDS: ADM. JEREMY "MIKE" BOORDA SUICIDE