Posted on 02/20/2003 10:55:17 AM PST by honway
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Navy has quietly accepted that Adm. Jeremy "Mike" Boorda was entitled to wear combat decorations on his uniform -- the challenged Vietnam War awards that led to his suicide two years ago.
Navy Secretary John Dalton put into Boorda's file a letter from Elmo Zumwalt Jr., the chief of naval operations during the war, which says it was "appropriate, justified and proper" for Boorda to attach the small bronze combat V's to the ribbons on his uniform. The Navy also modified Boorda's record to list the V's among his other decorations -- recognition that they were earned.
But that stops short of what Zumwalt sought -- unambiguous public recognition that Boorda violated no regulations.
Nonetheless, Zumwalt, in an interview Wednesday, called Dalton's action "posthumous validation of Admiral Boorda's right to have worn the V's based on instructions given by me when I was chief of naval operations."
"My interpretation is that retroactively he has been authorized to wear the V's," Zumwalt added.
Wearing an unauthorized decoration is a severe breach of military protocol.
Decision becomes part of naval records
On May 16, 1996, when his right to wear the decorations was about to be questioned, Boorda, 56, the first enlisted man to become the chief of naval operations in the service's 198-year history, went home, wrote a note "to my sailors," stepped into his garden and fatally shot himself in the chest.
He acted after learning that two Newsweek reporters were on their way to question him about the matter.
The decision by Dalton, who will retire at the end of the year, to place Zumwalt's memo in Boorda's file made it part of naval records.
The "V" stands for valor and signifies service in combat. Boorda served on a destroyer, the USS Craig, in 1965 and as executive officer on another destroyer, the USS Brooke, in 1973, both in combat situations.
In his suicide note, Boorda said, "I am about to be accused of wearing combat devices on two ribbons I earned during sea tours in Vietnam. It turns out I didn't really rate them. When I found out I was wrong I immediately took them off, but it was really too late."
He added: "I couldn't bear to bring dishonor to you."
The matter is complex. The regulations were ambiguous and evolving and Zumwalt said in his memo that his directions authorizing the wearing of the decorations were delivered verbally "in over 100 visits to ships and shore stations" rather than in writing.
Zumwalt's memo and Dalton's were not made public. The Washingtonian magazine reports on them in its forthcoming July issue. The magazine made copies of the memos available to The Associated Press.
Advised by the Navy's Office of Awards and Special Projects in 1995 that he was not entitled to the decorations, Boorda removed the V's from his uniform.
Navy rules revision makes Boorda eligible
In 1965, Boorda did not qualify for the Combat V, the Washingtonian said. But in 1967 the Navy retroactively upgraded all Navy Commendation for Achievement ribbons awarded between 1961 and 1967, making Boorda eligible for the award.
"Admiral Mike Boorda's citations for awards of the Navy Achievement Medal and Navy Commendation Medal plainly state they were awarded for service including `combat operations' and `while operating in combat missions,"' Dalton's memo said.
Zumwalt's said that during the war, his "statements as the official military spokesman for the Navy made it appropriate, justified and proper for Mike to wear the V."
Despite the intense attention paid to Boorda's suicide, the Navy made no acknowledgment of Dalton's action until questioned Wednesday. Dalton's "memorandum for the record" was dated April 3, 1998, almost two years after Boorda's suicide.
Boorda's widow, Bettie, could not be reached for comment. She has an unlisted telephone number. Her son, Edward, captain of the USS Russell, reported on duty in the Arabian Gulf, could not be reached. Dalton did not respond to requests, made over three days, for an interview.
In a 20,000 word investigation of the Boorda suicide in 1996, Nick Kotz wrote in the Washingtonian that the decorations dispute may have been only one factor pushing Boorda toward suicide. He cited hostility from the Navy's "old guard," who considered him a "political admiral" and felt he had appeased politicians in his handling of the Navy's Tailhook sexual harassment scandal.
The Defence Associations National Network
In The fall of 1997, Hack with Col. Carl Bernard, and LTC Roger Charles, USMC, founded Soldiers for The Truth, an organisation to fight for the interests of the American grunt. (Carl Bernard is a survivor of Task Force Smith, the scratch US force sent from Okinawa to Korea when the North invaded in June 1950. Mr. Bernard became a Green Beret, and served in Laos with Operation White Star, the joint CIA/Special Forces program to train Lao anti-communist forces. Rog Charles was a Marine platoon commander in Viet Nam. He is the journalist who broke the Admiral Boorda story in 1996).
Roger Charles worked as a defense investigator for Stephen Jones in the McVeigh case.
One of the defense investigators provided the Dallas Morning News with a significant portion of all the defense documents in electronic form prior to the trial. Defense documents included the leads Jones was following in the Phillippines about the Middle Eastern terrorist connection.
THE JAMES MADISON PROJECT
Advisory Board
Roger Charles
David Kahn
John D. Podesta
Thomas M. Susman, Esq.
Semper911, bump to your #7.
Roger Charles
SUMMARY OF PERFORMANCE:
Award-winning investigative journalist, consultant and confidential advisor with unique experience in a broad range of national security affairs.
. PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
June 1997 - Present. Free-lance journalist and investigator for: Oklahoma City Bombing Committee (August 1997-February 1998); ABC News (October 1997); National Security News Service (September 1998-March 2000); BBC news magazine Correspondent (October 1999-March 2000) as Assistant Producer, "The Other Lockerbie"; England & Company Entertainment Productions (January-March 2000), supporting web site for Paramount movie, "Rules of Engagement"; Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, Ltd. (April 2000-present) - consultant for proposed series on Cold War military and intelligence operations.
March - June 1997. Defense investigator for Attorney Stephen Jones. Collected and analyzed information on the Oklahoma City bombing case (U.S.A. vs. McVeigh).
August 1996-February 1997. Free-lance investigative reporter with ABC News 20/20 for a special project (as assistant producer) on Oklahoma City bombing.
1993-1996. Investigative reporter, National Security News Service: Developed pieces for ABC News 20/20, ABC World News Tonight, ABC Nightline, ABC News Prime Time Live, CNN Prime News and 20 20 TV (British). Advised and supported numerous print and electronic media outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, the New Yorker, CBS 60 Minutes and Frontline. Investigated and broke the story of Adm. Jeremy M. Boorda, Chief of Naval Operations, fraudulently wearing combat insignia.
How many "soldier's soldiers" decline to return to their country after their service, remain on foreign soil, and protest the defense policies of the United States?
I believe I read Hackworth did not return to the U.S. until after Clinton was elected, but I need to confirm the date he arrived here from Australia.
That doesn't sound like a soldier's soldier to me, but I know nothing about Hackworth other than he's a shameless self-promoter and he seems to have had it in for Boorda. I was just wondering if there were something personal between the two of them.
MILITARY TOP BRASS CAN BE TRUSTED
"I have known columnist, and retired U.S.Army Colonel, David Hackworth since 1968 when we both served a short tour in the Pentagon as relatively junior field grade officers....
In 1989, after the statue of limitations on the charges against him had run out, Hackworth returned to the USA and wrote a best selling book and later became widely acclaimed columnist. He also has a well known web-site on the internet that cast a wide net over our military forces of all ranks."
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