Airmen Going Up

Naval aviators have been struggling for years to break the battleship admirals' stranglehold on topside jobs. This week, in a command shake-up being rigged for public announcement, they saw their hopes fulfilled.

Headed for the No. 2 position, Vice Chief of Naval Operations under non-flying Fleet Admiral Nimitz, was DeWitt Clinton ("Duke") Ramsey, son of an Army officer, but a naval aviator since 1916 with a well-balanced war record of sea and shore duty, and with a smooth personality which fitted him well for dealings with the civilian arms of government. The boost up the ladder would raise Ramsey from two-star to three-star rank. The man he replaced, armorplated Admiral Richard Stanislaus Edwards, would go to the quiet Western Sea Frontier (headquarters in San Francisco).

Another topflight airman, Arthur William Radford, would also be upped to vice admiral and would relieve Marc Andrew Mitscher as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Air. "Pete" Mitscher, who had been squirming at his desk and itching for sea duty, would get his wish--as commander of the Eighth Fleet in the Atlantic probably with four-star rank.

Outstanding feature of the shifts was that they involved no elderly admirals who had learned to fly in the twilight of their careers, but high-octane aviators who had been in the game since its early days. It looked like the best break for naval aviation in 30 years.

Outstanding among the airborne oldsters who were passed over was William F. Halsey, 63, who learned to fly at 52. But he was not overlooked. The Navy had been embarrassed a year ago when it got the right to appoint four fleet admirals: three were named at once, but Halsey and Admiral Spruance were tied for the fourth place, so neither got it. Last week, after announcing that he was retiring, Halsey got five stars.

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