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Admiral Jeremy Michael Borda, US Navy
Admiral, United States Navy
Chief of Naval Operations
From a contemporary news report:
The nation's top Navy officer, distraught
after some of his military awards were called into question, died Thursday,
May16, 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. Administration officials,
speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no evidence the shooting was
accidental and no suspicion of foul play. Two notes were found at Boorda's
residence; they were sealed by investigating police.
At the White House, President Clinton praised
Boorda, the first enlisted sailor in the history of the Navy to rise to its top
position, as a man of ''extraordinary energy, dedication and good humor.''
Pease said that when he told Boorda, 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. ''Admiral Boorda was obviously concerned,''said Pease,
the Navy's top public affairs officer.
In a statement, Newsweek Editor Maynard Parker
said the magazine ''had not reached any conclusions'' about the medal
controversy. 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.
Boorda was awarded commendation and
meritorious service awards for his duty in Vietnam, which included combat
operations. But copies of the citations released Thursday by the Navy did not
mention that Boorda qualified for wearing a combat ''V.''
Clinton opened the session with a moment of
silence in Boorda's memory, as grim-faced military officers stood behind him.
Clinton praised Boorda for his work in Bosnia and for showing ''unwavering
concern for the men and women'' of the U.S. military.
As commander of NATO forces in southern
Europe, Boorda was in charge of a NATO air strike against four Bosnian Serb
aircraft flying in violation of a U.N. ban on fixed-wing flights. It was the
first time a NATO commander had ordered alliance forces on an offensive mission
in its 44-year history.
Boorda was born in South Bend, Indiana, and
grew up in Chicago. He dropped out of high school, fibbed about his age and
joined the Navy at the age 17.
He and his wife, Bettie, have four children.
http://www.compuserb.com/boorda2.htm
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