Jeremy Michael Boorda
Admiral, United States Navy Chief of Naval OperationsLink
The nation's top Navy officer, distraught after some of his military awards were called into question, died Thursday, May 16, 1996, from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Adm. Jeremy Boorda was to have met about the time of the shooting with the Washington bureau chief of Newsweek magazine, which was working on a story concerning his medals.
Boorda was to have joined Clinton and other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the White House on Thursday for announcement of an initiative seeking a permanent worldwide ban on land mines.
Boorda's body was found about 2:05 p.m. in a side yard next to his quarters at the Washington Navy Yard. He was pronounced dead at D.C. General Hospital a few minutes later