Rude Awakening

To the Navy's top brass, the ideal Secretary of the Navy is a civilian who soaks up briefings, cuts an impressive figure before congressional committees, signs his name legibly and relies for all his decisions on the Navy's top brass. Navy

Secretary Robert B. Anderson, a 43-year-old Texas lawyer, estate manager and Boy Scout worker, appeared to fit these specifications. Last week the Navy got a rude awakening. Bob Anderson, six months in office, moved an admiral out of a top Navy Department job because of "policy differences."

Anderson's victim was Rear Admiral Homer N. Wallin, 59, chief of the Navy's Bureau of Ships. Wallin led the fight to prevent promotion--and thus bring automatic retirement--of Navy Captain Hyman Rickover, a brilliant, freewheeling Navy engineer who developed the atomic submarine. Secretary Anderson inherited the Rickover mess and the senatorial protests over the obvious injustice. Anderson examined the facts, disregarded Wallin's advice, and convened a special selection board which advanced Rickover to rear admiral. (He was confirmed by the Senate last week.)

Meanwhile, Navy Under Secretary Charles Thomas asked Navy departmental heads to report detailed facts on their procurement plans. Some of the admirals replied with vague generalizations. Thomas issued a stern order for precise detail. On the second round, all complied except Admiral Wallin, who, in effect, told Anderson and Thomas to content themselves with broad policy and leave the details to the admirals. Since, as every Pentagonian knows, broad policy is frequently determined by details, Anderson considered that he was getting a well-known form of Pentagon runaround. Wallin was relieved of his command and transferred to the Puget Sound Navy Yard in Bremerton, Wash.

Mild Bob Anderson was not trying to throw his weight around. His action was part of the Eisenhower effort to get control of defense policy back where the Constitution put it: in the hands of the President and his top civilian officials.

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