THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 15, 1995 TAG: 9509150561
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
Surprising many top Pentagon officials, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and one of the military's most innovative officers, plans to retire and join private industry when his two-year term expires in February, associates said Thursday.
Adm. William A. Owens, a former nuclear submarine commander, told Defense Secretary William J. Perry and Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, earlier this summer that he wanted to leave the military's second-highest job, one that often requires 20-hour days and constant travel, in order to spend more time with his family and pursue business interests, associates said. Many had expected him to serve a second two-year term.
But one retired officer said the admiral had been frustrated also by the reluctance of some senior military officials to embrace his reforms, which range from technical innovations like floating air bases offshore to changing the way the military develops and buys billions of dollars in weapons.
The 55-year-old admiral has been the main intellectual force in trying to lead a broad technological revolution to equip and restructure the post-Cold War military to fight the nation's wars. His departure could stall those efforts.
In the past nine years, a concentration of power developed in the leadership of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, particularly under Gen. Colin L. Powell. Owens has been trying to build on what Powell started by expanding the authority of the Vice Chairman's office into one of the services' cherished realms: equipping and training troops.
In tackling this project last year, Owens and his staff, who are supposed to transcend the services' parochial differences, predictably collided with the service chiefs of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force.
Several large technology or investment companies, including Science Applications International Corp. and BDM International, have offered the admiral a top executive's position.
Whether the admiral's reforms continue depend greatly on his successor and Shalikashivili's support. The leading candidates appear to be Gen. John J. Sheehan of the Marine Corps, who commands all American forces in the Atlantic, and Gen. Joseph W. Ralston of the Air Force, who heads the Air Combat Command in Virginia.
Other candidates: Gen. Thomas S. Moorman Jr., the Air Force vice chief of staff; Adm. Leighton W. Smith, the commander of American naval forces in Europe; and Gen. Henry Viccellio Jr., head of the Air Force Materiel Command. by CNB