THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 7, 1996 TAG: 9602070424
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: MY TURN
SOURCE: JACK DORSEY
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
There's a father and son in Navy uniforms today who, though 31 years and 6,000 miles apart, together had a pretty good couple of days last week.
Both are products of a Virginia Beach environment: The father flew jets here; the son mastered being a beach kid.
Joseph Wilson Prueher, 53, a four-star admiral, took command last week of the Pacific Command out of Hawaii. He's been confirmed by the Senate and now commands all U.S. forces in that part of the world. It's one of the Navy's most prestigious posts.
He cut his teeth on A-6 Intruders out of Oceana. He later became commanding officer of Attack Squadron 65 here and served on the staff of the Atlantic Fleet in Norfolk.
His son is Joshua W. Prueher, 22, now a midshipman first class at the Naval Academy, where he is also brigade commander - the top student leader among the 4,000 midshipmen at Annapolis. He found out about the same time his dad was getting his new job that he's the recipient of the FitzGerald Scholarship, allowing him to study politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University in England for two years. It too is a fairly prestigious award.
The scholarship was endowed by U.S. Ambassador to England William H.G. FitzGerald, a graduate of the Naval Academy's class of 1931.
Joshua cut his teeth at Linkhorn Elementary School, Virginia Beach Junior High and his grandparents' cottage on 66th Street.
``I hung out there all the time,'' he said by telephone Monday of his grandparents' place. ``I hope always to return to Virginia Beach,'' he said, ``hopefully as an F-18E pilot.''
Although a generation apart, the two obviously have a love for the Navy that may make a difference for future officers treading their way through some of the embarrassing pitfalls that have fallen on their service recently.
Adm. Prueher found himself being grilled by the Senate last week for his handling of an incident involving a female midshipman. He was a captain and commandant at the academy in 1989 when the woman was handcuffed to a urinal and harassed by male colleagues. As commandant, he was in charge of that investigation.
Since he was replacing Adm. Richard C. Macke, who was forced to retire because of a remark involving three servicemen accused in the rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl, the Senate was obviously interested in his views.
The urinal incident, plus subsequent ones at the academy involving a cheating scandal, the accidental deaths of three midshipmen in a 1992 car crash, and a recent drug conviction of another midshipman first class, have weighed heavily on the current class at the academy.
Both father and son have seen the impacts.
Adm. Prueher told the Senate committee he learned a hard lesson that opened his eyes to sexual harassment. He did the best he could back then, but would do things differently now, he said.
For Midshipman 1st Class Prueher, then is now and he can already see a difference.
``It's not anything radical,'' he said of the recent changes that have swung around the academy's morale since those incidents.
``It's mostly due to Adm. (Charles R.) Larson, our superintendent. His presence here has given us relative autonomy. We don't always have to suffer the scrutiny of (Washington) D.C.''
Basically, Larson, who took over in 1994, had told the midshipmen: ``I will worry outside the walls and you worry about inside and we'll take care of business,'' said Joshua Prueher.
Larson has given the upper class students more authority and responsibility and has demanded they set rising standards for the underclass.
``I think we definitely are on a huge upswing now, compared with two years ago,'' said Joshua. ``Morale in the brigade and spirits are up 10 times what it was two years ago.'' by CNB