DATE: Wednesday, July 30, 1997              TAG: 9707300499

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:  101 lines

LANGLEY LEADER A CANDIDATE TO BE AIR FORCE CHIEF OF STAFF

Gen. Richard E. Hawley, head of the Hampton-based Air Combat Command, has emerged as a prominent candidate to succeed Ronald R. Fogleman as Air Force chief of staff.

Fogleman said he would retire rather than accept a Defense Department report that apparently will blame another Air Force officer for the 1996 terrorist bombing of a U.S. compound in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 airmen.

The Air Combat Command is the Air Force's war-fighting branch, giving Hawley jurisdiction over more than 100,000 active-duty and civilian workers and more than 1,000 aircraft. Hawley took over the command, headquartered at Langley Air Force Base, in April 1996.

Hawley has spearheaded recent efforts to shorten the overseas deployments of Air Force pilots and air crews from 90 to 45 days. Service leaders believe frequent deployments, often to remote and inhospitable bases, are driving pilots and enlisted members to leave the Air Force.

A fighter pilot who flew 433 combat missions in Vietnam, Hawley held a Pentagon desk job, as operations director for one of the Air Force's deputy chiefs of staff, during the Persian Gulf War. He also is a former commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and put in nearly two years, ending in July 1995, as the senior uniformed officer in the office of the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisitions.

Knowledge of the acquisitions process could be particularly important to Fogleman's successor, who will have to lead efforts to rein in the cost of the service's new tactical jet, the F-22 Raptor. The plane now is projected to cost well over $100 million per copy.

Other prominent candidates to succeed Fogleman reportedly include Gen. Michael Ryan, Hawley's successor as head of Air Forces in Europe, and Gen. Lloyd ``Fig'' Newton, head of the Air Education and Training Command.

Newton would be the first African-American to head the Air Force.

Even before Fogleman abruptly quit his job Monday, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen was quietly interviewing candidates to succeed him as the service's chief of staff, the Pentagon acknowledged Tuesday.

Kenneth Bacon, Cohen's senior spokesman, said the secretary began the search based on news accounts that Fogleman would retire.

It was not clear whether Cohen asked Fogleman to confirm those reports before beginning the interviews or if the secretary warned the general he was searching for new leadership for the Air Force. Bacon insisted that Fogleman was not fired, however.

Though he intermingled it with praise for Fogleman's stewardship, Bacon's account of recent dealings between his boss and the Air Force chief suggested a severe strain in relations between the two men.

Cohen and Fogleman had only a brief discussion of news reports concerning the general's displeasure about the pending final report on the Khobar Towers bombing, Bacon said. And the two men have not spoken since Fogleman submitted his retirement papers on Monday, the spokesman added.

Fogleman's retirement date is Sept. 1, but Bacon said Cohen expects to name a successor this week; filling such a senior position typically takes several weeks or months. Also expected this week is release of the final report on the Khobar Towers bombing.

There is ``a race'' as to which announcement will come first, Bacon said.

The Khobar bombing has been the subject of detailed investigations by a special Defense Department commission and by the Air Force.

The first panel, headed by retired Army Gen. Wayne Downing, concluded that Brig. Gen. Terryl J. Schwalier, then commander of the Khobar complex, could have done more to secure the facility against such attacks. A pair of Air Force inquiries exonerated Schwalier, however, concluding that he took every reasonable precaution against threats as they were then perceived.

Fogleman has called the bombing ``an act of war'' and urged that Schwalier not be blamed. Schwalier's promotion to two-star rank has been held up by the investigations.

Fogleman's retirement announcement said his decision was intended ``to defuse the perceived confrontation between myself and Secretary Cohen'' over the final Khobar report. But the general added that ``my values and sense of loyalty to the troops led me to the conclusion that I may be out of step.''

Asked Tuesday whether Cohen considers Fogleman ``out of step,'' Bacon declined to comment. He said the secretary has no problem with dissent inside the ranks; Cohen came to the Pentagon after more than 20 years in Congress and is accustomed to disagreements, Bacon noted.

But Cohen also expects that once he makes a decision, uniformed leaders will put aside any disagreement and support him, the spokesman added. ``He sees himself as the leader of a team,'' Bacon said.

Though the Khobar dispute apparently figured most prominently in his departure, Fogleman has had no shortage of other problems. He was understood to be particularly dispirited this spring over Cohen-endorsed cuts in the F-22 program.

Fogleman also came under attack on Capitol Hill for his handling of questions about the Air Force's attempt to court-martial its first female B-52 pilot on charges growing out of her adulterous affair with the husband of an enlisted woman.

Fogleman's assertion during a congressional hearing that Lt. Kelly Flinn was being prosecuted not for adultery but for lying about her involvement with the man helped turn a strong tide of public opinion that had been running in Flinn's favor. But some lawmakers and military lawyers complained that by speaking out on the case, Fogleman made it impossible for Flinn to get a fair trial.

Flinn ultimately was allowed to leave the service with a general discharge, avoiding a trial. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

Gen. Richard E. Hawley has led the Air Combat Command at Langley Air

Force Base in Hampton since April 1996.

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