ADM Jeremy "Mike" Boorda, May 16, 1996: Pt. 4

If you're starting here, please don't. Go to Part 1.

This article is pretty long. I'm just getting used to this blog and the way it handles postings. It's backwards. If you want to read my first post, you have to go to the end of the blog. Well, let me circumvent that cludginess, at least this once, and put this article into four postings, beginning with part 4, then part 3, then part 2, then part 1. Most folk read from up to down, not down to up, so that seems ergonomically sound. I'll discuss my thoughts on this a little more in Part 1, which I'll post last.

Part 4 of 4
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Admiral Wrote He Killed Self to Avoid Dishonoring `My Sailors'
By Mike Feinsilber, Associated Press, 11/24/96; 14:26

WASHINGTON (AP) - Dreading a new Navy scandal, Adm. Jeremy Boorda, in a note addressed "to my sailors," wrote that he was about to kill himself because "I couldn't bear to bring dishonor to you."

Boorda's suicide note is made public in a 20,000-word story in the December issue of Washingtonian magazine that also provides new details on the chief of naval operations' death - an event that stunned Washington.

Freelance writer Nick Kotz reports that Boorda had confided to his son, Edward, that he planned to resign two years early as the Navy's top officer. He mentioned the enormous demands of the job and the stress on his wife, Bettie.

Then Boorda shot himself in the chest last May 15 (actually date of shooting is May 16 -- this is a typographical error in the AP article), just hours before he was about to be questioned by reporters about two Vietnam combat decorations he wore but may not have been qualified to display.

The magazine says the decorations affair was only one factor.

Another, Kotz writes, was a drumbeat of hostility from the Navy's old guard, which considered Boorda a ``political admiral'' who had appeased politicians in his handling of the Navy's Tailhook scandal.

In the suicide note, whose contents the Navy has never disclosed, Boorda mentioned the decorations but also talked of ``those who want to tear our Navy down.''

Known for his camaraderie with sailors - he himself rose through the ranks - Boorda wrote to the sailors, according to the magazine:

``If you care to do so, you can do something for me. That is take care of each other. Be honorable. Do what is right. Forgive when it makes sense, punish when you must, but always work to make the latter unnecessary by working to help people be all they really can and should be. My idea of one-on-one leadership really will work if you let it and honestly apply it. We have great leaders, and I know you'll succeed.

``Finally, for those who want to tear our Navy down, I guess I've given them plenty to write about for a while. But I will soon be forgotten. You, our great Navy people, will live on. I am proud of you. I am proud to have led you if only for a short time. I wish I had done it better.''

Kotz declined to say how he obtained Boorda's note. ``I got the letter from sources in the course of reporting the story,'' he said. The Navy did not dispute the authenticity of the suicide note.

Rear Adm. Kendell Pease, the Navy's chief of information, said, ``The Navy made a conscious decision not to release the letter, and that is still the Navy's position.''

Kotz wrote that in the final weeks of his life Boorda was hurt when he learned that the midshipmen of the U.S. Naval Academy had given a standing ovation to a speech by former Navy Secretary James Webb that was a thinly veiled attack on Boorda. Boorda earned his commission in the four-month program of the Naval Officer Candidate School, the first CNO in the Navy's 198-year history who was not graduated from the Annapolis, Md., academy.

Webb said in the speech that some Navy leaders were ``guilty of ultimate disloyalty. To save or advance their careers, they abandoned the very ideas of their profession in order to curry favor with politicians.''

But the suicide's immediate cause may have been the interview scheduled that afternoon by Newsweek reporters on the medals issue.

``It was an honest mistake,'' Boorda told his aides when he learned of Newsweek's interest.

And before going home for lunch - and to write the suicide notes and shoot himself - he asked them, ``What do we do?'' He answered his own question: ``We will tell them the truth.''

He discussed the medals issue in the first part of his suicide note:

``What I am about to do is not very smart, but it is right for me. You see, I have asked you to do the right thing, to care for and take care of each other and to stand up for what is good and correct. All of these things require honor, courage and commitment ... our core values.

``I am about to be accused of wearing combat devices on two ribbons I earned during sea tours in Viet Nam. 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. I don't expect any reporters to believe I could make an honest mistake, and you may or may not believe it yourselves. That is up to you and isn't all that important now anyway. I've made it not matter in the big scheme of things because I love our Navy so much, and you who are the heart and soul of our Navy, that I couldn't bear to bring dishonor to you.''

Copyright 1996 Associated Press
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Exclusive interview with Charles Thompson, freelance producer, 18 Nov 1996

The former producer at "60 Minutes" who gave the tip on the "Vs" to National Security News Service doesn't believe Adm Boorda would have committed suicide over the discrepancy of the medal devices.

Charles Thompson also said he believes there are significant unanswered questions regarding the alleged suicide and that the truth has yet to come out.

Thompson, interviewed by me over the telephone at his home, said the tip alleging high ranking officers in the Pentagon were wearing medals they did not deserve came from within the Navy. He declined to identify his source but he intimated to me his source was not a USNA graduate.

Thompson said he believes the Washington press corps has not followed up on the story for a twofold reason. First, he believes it's because few in Washington have military experience or a strong enough background covering the military. Secondly, he said the Navy, and in particular Chief of Naval Information Kendell Pease, orchestrated the story of "Vs" so well, casting so much blame on the media that the usually aggressive Washington media are afraid to go near the subject.

Thompson said he's been interviewed only once since Adm Boorda's death, and then only for a short piece in The Baltimore Sun.

Thompson said he passed the tip alleging high ranking Pentagon officers wearing undeserved medals to National Security New Service in the spring of 1994. Freedom of Information Act requests were filed and results obtained in the spring of 1995 and neither corroborated nor disproved the information Thompson had been seeking on another Naval officer in the Pentagon. Thompson said that was the last he heard of it until receiving a call that brought the news of Adm Boorda's death more than a year later.

Thompson, who said he himself had served two tours in Vietnam, said Adm Boorda had been assisting him in the preparation of a book he is writing on the U.S.S. Iowa cover-up. It is because of this book, he said, that he personally is not pursuing the story at this time.

[Note: Mr. Thompson has finished his book, "A Glimpse of Hell," published by Norton Books.]

======================

To date, the autopsy reports on Adm Boorda have never been released. No interviews had been reported from those who were directly on scene, i.e. Adm Boorda's driver, the attending physician, paramedics, DC police, etc. The original "suicide" notes have not been released. I would also note that the press immediately was blamed in the death of Adm Boorda, just as the photographers were initially blamed in the death of Princess Diana. The connection here is that these appear to have been public relations ploys of misdirection; and the members of the arrogant press corps are easy targets. The ploy blaming the papparazzi in the death of Princess Diana did not work; the ploy blaming the press in the death of Adm Boorda did.

(I also find it kind of interesting that, in a country where the network script writers will jump on the latest scandal bandwagon to put out a made-for-TV "disease of the week" movie, none has ever aired on the cover-up of the death of Adm Jeremy "Mike" Boorda, much less any other members of the Clinton Body Count.)

Hope this helps. I'm still waiting for the truth.

Best, Mac

P.P.S. The last person of command rank to speak with ADM Boorda prior to his death allegedly was ADM Boorda's competitor for Chief of Naval Operations, ADM Charles Larson. [An explanation of competitors is in order here. Both ADM Larson and ADM Boorda had been in line for promotion to CNO. ADM Boorda was named CNO and ADM Larson retired shortly thereafter.] ADM Larson had been recalled from retirement to take over the reins as superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy during a very troubling time including a wide-ranging cheating scandal, drug scandals, a car-theft ring and the implication of a female midshipman in a love triangle murder. ADM Larson reportedly spoke with ADM Boorda the night before ADM Boorda's death. ADM Boorda drove to Annapolis, MD to meet with ADM Larson. After ADM Boorda's death, ADM Larson, an alleged lifelong Republican, retired from the Navy again and ran unsuccessfully on the Democratic ticket for the Lieutenant Governor's post of Maryland. At the time of ADM Boorda's death and Mrs. Bettie Boorda's discussions with ranking brass, two of ADM Boorda's sons and a daughter-in-law were serving naval officers. The only other person allegedly at home when ADM Boorda arrived for lunch and his appointment with his fatal destiny was his autistic son. RADM Kendell Pease, the Navy's Chief of Information who reportedly was with ADM Boorda an hour before his death, retired in 1998 after 34 years service. Pease currently serves as vice president of communications for General Dynamics. Retired Army Colonel and columnist David Hackworth, 74, died May 5, 2005 of bladder cancer, just 11 days shy of the ninth anniversary of the death of ADM Boorda.

[Update 9/27/2005: "The stories were told by ... public officials. Many news organizations, including The Associated Press, carried the witness accounts and official pronouncements, and in some cases later repeated the claims as fact, without attribution." Quote attributed to the Associated Press acknowledging its fault helping spread spread rumor and allegations of murder and rape in the New Orleans Superdome as fact in the Hurricane Katrina disaster.]

In Memoriam, for Mike and the rest, a poem I wrote in 1971:

Two Steel Tags

Smoke curling off dry lips
Shows his deep meditation
For love of life
Not constant strife.
Or maybe it's just imagination?

He remembers Friendswhofought

Side BY Side

In the consuming heat of battle.
His cry of pain heralds: "No Answer!"
From George, of the Klan, or Bobby, a Black Panther.

Just a toss of the dice and it's all over!
Lord, how the time does lag-g-g-g.
Some men going home.
Most will just roam.
And some are just two steel tags.

God bless you vets. Thank you. Welcome home.

[Know something the world doesn't know about ADM Boorda's death? Send me e-mail using the hyperlink in the "About me" box, or leave me a voice mail message, toll free in the U.S., 888-389-8950. Anonymity assured for all verifiable accurate information. Pitch me a line or try to scam me and the world will know. Serious information only, please.]