THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 22, 1996 TAG: 9605220147
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 90 lines
With profound grief and a touch of gentle humor, President Clinton, the Navy, and friends in the other military branches remembered Adm. Jeremy ``Mike'' Boorda on Tuesday as - in Clinton's words - ``a small man with a big heart, a large vision, and great courage.''
Almost 4,000 mourners packed the Washington National Cathedral for a 90-minute memorial service full of love for the 56-year old former chief of naval operations but marked by everyone's frustration at their continuing inability to explain why Boorda took his own life last week.
``It is hard to find reason in the irrational events of the past few days,'' said Capt. Allen S. Kaplan, the Navy chaplain who delivered the homily. Boorda's friends ``may never know the answers to our questions,'' he said, ``but that does not mean we will not learn from this tragedy.''
Boorda shot himself in the chest Thursday, about an hour before he was to be interviewed by two reporters concerning decorations he had won while serving on ships off the coast of Vietnam in the 1960s and '70s. The journalists wanted to ask about his former wearing of small, bronze ``combat V'' pins to which he may not havebeen entitled.
His death ignited a controversy over Boorda's right to wear the awards, which are given for valor in combat, and triggered questions about why a man who had accomplished so much would kill himself over such a thing.
Suicide notes Boorda left have not been released but are said to suggest that he wanted to spare from further embarrassment a Navy that has been rocked by scandal in recent years.
No one mentioned the circumstances of Boorda's death directly Tuesday. Clinton and other speakers hailed his integrity and honor and Kaplan asserted that ``no one can tarnish the crown of the good name that Mike Boorda fashioned in his lifetime.''
Clinton, who led Boorda's widow, Bettie, and four children into the cathedral and sat beside Mrs. Boorda through the service, also praised the admiral's leadership of the Navy and his service - just before becoming chief of naval operations - as commander of U.S. forces in Bosnia.
``I very much want history to record that Mike Boorda's quiet determination to do all we could do to end the slaughter of the children and the innocents in Bosnia and to bring that awful war to an end had a profound impact on his President and on the policy of this nation,'' Clinton said. Because of Boorda's efforts, ``there are countless thousands of people alive in Bosnia today,'' the president added.
Clinton went to the Pentagon several hours before the service to offer condolences to Boorda's staff. He said the admiral's co-workers told him stories of a man who cared deeply for his Navy and it's sailors.
Clinton clearly was most touched by the simple question posed by, ``one very large African-American sailor from the state of Tennessee (who) stood up in the back of the room and said, `Mr. President, how can we ever replace this man?' ''
Boorda was buried Sunday in a private, family ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. Tuesday's ceremony here, and others like it on ships and at Navy outposts around the world, was geared to his co-workers and comrades in arms.
``Sailors loved him,'' said Navy Secretary John H. Dalton, battling to control his emotions as he recalled his friend. ``He understood them, all of them. Mess cooks, lookouts, from the newly enlisted to the most senior, whether they were chipping paint or swabbing decks, he made every one of them feel important.''
Boorda, the first chief of naval operations to rise from the enlisted ranks, ``was the leader we longed for and looked to,'' John Hagan, the master chief petty officer of the Navy, said in what was the most memorable of several eulogies.
``He came from among us and rose so high, always remembering the lonely, insecure, frightened recruit, which all of us are in the beginning before we discover, as Admiral Boorda said, that the Navy is a family. Our family has lost a man of true worth.''
``We will long remember Admiral Boorda for many great achievements,'' Hagan said, ``but I pray today we also remember the details.
``He didn't just shake a sailor's hand, he gripped it and held it, and drew energy from the encounter even as he left the sailor an indelible, lifelong memory of a moment with their CNO.''
With Boorda gone, ``our charge today is clear,'' Hagan said. ``Carry on. Lead with zeal, serve with pride, learn about and honor our heritage - and that will be the Admiral Boorda legacy and the only really fitting memorial and with it will come the strength to carry on.'' MEMO: PILOT ONLINE: The full texts of Clinton's and Dalton's eulogies
are available on the News page at http://www.pilotonline.com/ ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Clinton escorts Bettie Boorda, widow of Adm. Jeremy
``Mike'' Boorda to her seat at the Washington National Cathedral.
About 4,000 mourners packed the church Tuesday.
KEYWORDS: U.S. NAVY SUICIDE CHIEF OF NAVAL
OPERATIONS by CNB