THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 5, 1996 TAG: 9608020021
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 37 lines
What incredible, galling irony that Cmdr. Robert E. Stumpf has decided to give up his fight for promotion and retire from the U.S. Navy! How can it be possible that one of our most decorated, dedicated, skilled, heads-and-shoulders-above naval aviators be denied advancement to captain for simply having been at the wrong place at the wrong moment?
Similarly, I am dismayed and stricken by Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Boorda's suicide, ostensibly for the innocent wearing of two combat ``V's'' he thought he had been entitled to wear.
My heightened sense of bitter irony and outrage is propelled by the fact that these two great and lamentable losses to the Navy and to the country occurred on the quarterdeck watch of our current (but temporary) armed forces commander in chief, a well-known draft dodger, an overseas anti-U.S. demonstrator, a puffed-but-didn't-inhale Whitewater scammer and a Gennifer Flowers-Paula Jones skirt-chasing sexual harasser. This is the very same titular military head who had the mind-boggling audacity to permit his lawyer to even suggest publicly that he, the commander in chief, is entitled to invoke the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act to protect him from his sleaze.
What has happened to the honored profession of the Navy blue and gold? For that matter, what has happened to the honored leadership of the red, white and blue?
Honor, duty, country - a code of dedication for all professional military people. How does lifelong devotion to this code by Admiral Boorda and Commander Stumpf compare with our present but soon-to-be (I hope) erstwhile commander in chief? Perhaps the electorate will make the judgment in November.
BURTON HATHAWAY JONES
Commander, U.S. Navy (ret.)
Nags Head, N.C., July 13, 1996 by CNB