CNN has learned from Pentagon sources that Boorda wrote two letters before he died, one to his family and one addressed to sailors.
Sources said that in the typewritten note to the sailors, Boorda explained that he took his life because of the questions raised about his wearing of "V" for valor medals on his combat ribbon from Vietnam.
Navy officials had not yet decided whether to release the letters.
A U.S. Navy official who met with Boorda in the hours preceding his death said Boorda was "obviously concerned" about a scheduled meeting Thursday with two Newsweek reporters pursuing the story.
The 57-year-old chief of naval operations was rushed to D.C. General Hospital after he was found outside his quarters at the Washington Navy Yard, the Navy said. An emergency room physician said Boorda arrived with a gunshot wound to the chest. Five minutes later, at 2:30 p.m. EDT, he was pronounced dead.
According to Newsweek editor Maynard Parker, the news magazine was working on a story that called into question two medals Boorda received during the Vietnam war.
According to Navy sources, the magazine claimed to have uncovered evidence that Boorda had for more than 20 years inappropriately displayed "V" for valor on the medals.
According to a source who has seen Boorda's note to the sailors, Boorda wrote that he wore the Vs because he thought he rated them.
Boorda told the sailors how much he thought of them, and said that some people will not think he did the right thing, the source said. He ended the letter with a reference to "critics in the media" who have been "hard on the Navy," saying "I have given you more to write about," the source said.
The "V" for valor on such awards is reserved for acts "involving direct participation in combat operations," according to military code. The Navy released documents late Thursday which indicate that Boorda was not authorized to wear a combat "V" decoration.
Rear Adm. Kendell Pease, who was with Boorda a little over an hour before the shooting, said that when he told Boorda, at about 12:30 p.m., what the subject of the interview was, the admiral abruptly announced he was going home for lunch instead of eating the meal that had been brought to his office.
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From a Knight-Ridder Newspapers story:
Pease, the Navy's chief spokesman, said that at 12:30 p.m., when he told Adm. Boorda about the 2:30 p.m. interview, the admiral asked him how they should handle the questions, then without waiting for a reply, answered his own question: "We'll just tell him the truth."
Pease said the admiral abruptly announced he was going home for lunch.
Adm. Boorda stormed to his car, brushed past his driver and drove himself home, a law-enforcement source said. The concerned driver apparently followed him home in a second car and arrived to find him mortally wounded, the source said.
When did Admiral Boorda find time to type two suicide notes?