Change of Command

The chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has traditionally belonged to the Army. Four of the six men to serve as chairman since the post was created in 1949 have been Army men, including General Earle Wheeler, who has held the post for the past six years. Only one has been an Air Force man, only one an admiral. Now the Navy is going to be in command again. Upon Wheeler's retirement this week, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Thomas Moorer, 58, will take over as chairman.

Coolly Competent. Moorer is a logical choice to chair the Joint Chiefs. A coolly competent officer who earned his early reputation as a pilot during World War II, the soft-spoken admiral has seen some rough sailing in his career. Patrolling the Pacific in his PBY, he was shot down by the Japanese and wounded in the hip. He reached safety only after surviving another Japanese attack. Decorated for his war service, he rose quickly through the ranks, taking command of the U.S. Seventh Fleet in 1962, the Pacific Fleet two years later. In 1965 he was named commander of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, becoming the only Navyman to have commanded both oceans. In 1967 he was named Chief of Naval Operations.

Even in this position, Moorer weathered his share of storms. His tenure saw the capture of the Pueblo, the downing of an EC-121 reconnaissance plane off North Korea and tremendous cost overruns in the Navy's shipbuilding program. Through all this, Moorer pushed for an expanded Navy to counter growing Soviet naval strength.

Youngest Everything. Moorer's successor as C.N.O., Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, is a brilliant ship-of-the-line officer who is as comfortable discussing cost efficiency with Pentagon experts as he is on the bridge of a destroyer. Zumwalt is an intellectual who respects, but refuses to be bound by, traditions. Described by a fellow officer as the Navy's "youngest everything," he was the service's youngest peacetime rear admiral at 44, and now is its youngest C.N.O. at 49. Zumwalt spent 20 months in Viet Nam, where he was responsible for the success of the Navy's "brown water" river fleet.

His problem-solving ability will be sorely needed. The change of command comes just as the Joint Chiefs enter a time of trial for themselves and their services. The J.C.S. are a natural focus for the present unpopularity of the U.S. military establishment and, like the services they represent, are somewhat demoralized and defensive at the moment. They are also on the cutting edge of the military's financial problems. The defense budget for fiscal 1971 has already been slashed by $7 billion; the budget for fiscal '72 is expected to be cut by at least $2 billion more. Thus the chiefs will have to battle each other as well as Congress for funds.

The chiefs are under attack on a third front as well. Reduction of U.S. military commitments abroad is bound to alter their policymaking role and lessen their importance. Nor is a study, now being conducted by a blue-ribbon panel appointed by Defense Secretary Melvin Laird, likely to increase their significance. Surveying the operations of the entire Department of Defense, the panelists are concerned about whether the chiefs can meet almost daily on policy matters and still run their services. The panel may recommend that the chiefs be relieved of one of their jobs.

Whatever the panel recommends, the J.C.S. will continue to make their voice heard in Washington. Unlike some of his predecessors, Laird respects the chiefs and listens to what they have to say. President Nixon does even more. When the chiefs urged him to destroy Communist sanctuaries and supply caches in Cambodia, he took their advice and sent in U.S. troops to carry it out.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.