Admiral Boorda

Adm. Charles R. Larson yesterday took command of the Naval Academy, a school stained by the largest cheating xTC scandal in its history, declaring that the academy will return to its tradition of developing officers of integrity."

WASHINGTON -- One day last fall, the Navy's top admiral read a report of a drunken petty officer who had groped a female sailor on a commercial flight while other sailors looked on and did nothing.The next day, the admiral, Jeremy M. Boorda, ordered all 430,000 men and women under his command to take time off to ponder ways to aid order and discipline.For a Navy increasingly sensitive to sexual harassment, 1995 has been another trying year.This year's stand-down was the second time in three years that the Navy has ordered such self-analysis.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a law-and-order Republican from Texas, and Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, a liberal Democrat from Illinois, don't have much in common on ideological grounds. But last week they and the Senate's five other women members closed ranks in an impressive show of unity.Together, they sent a warning shot across the bow of the U.S. Navy. They fell short of their goal -- denying Adm. Frank B. Kelso II, retiring chief of naval operations, the honor of taking all four of his stars into retirement.

WASHINGTON -- Craig Livingstone quit his White House job without ceremony yesterday and soon sat seething with anger before a congressional hearing as Democrat and Republican alike lambasted him for ineptness in the handling of hundreds of FBI files at the heart of the capital's latest political controversy.Livingstone should have resigned as head of the White House personnel security office "a long time ago," said one of the Clinton administration's defenders, Rep. Tom Lantos, who dripped sarcasm in accusing him of overseeing "stupid actions" and an "idiotic" mess.

Sitting yesterday in a stone building at the 151-year-old Naval Academy, Midshipman Bryan Swenson fingered the striped ribbons on his uniform, pondering the tiny metal decorations that can come to mean so much.The three stars, he said, were for his service as a Navy enlisted man in the Persian Gulf war; the two "E"s stood for his qualification at the academy as an expert in riflery.Then he spoke about the Navy's highest-ranking officer and the decorations he had worn, the questions about their validity and Adm. Jeremy M. "Mike" Boorda's suicide.

In war, the moral is to the physical (material) as three is to one.% -- Napoleon Bonaparte THERE'S A WAR going on for the heart and soul of America's post-Cold War military. The tragic suicide of Admiral J. M. Boorda is just the latest and most public skirmish in this struggle.Arrayed on one side are the materialists, also referred to as technocrats. This group is composed of Cold War careerists from the Pentagon's E-ring, and their defense contractors and congressional allies. They believe that any problem with the U.S. military can, and must, be overcome with more of the taxpayers' tithe.

The news reports continue to show that military women are struggling for acceptance in a macho preserve.Sixteen enlisted women at a Navy training facility in San Diego charge their instructors with sexual comments, harassment and assault. Three West Point cadets are punished for touching the breasts of female cadets at an Army pep rally.The Air Force has escaped the recent run of headlines. But statistics and interviews with Air Force officers and women's rights advocates show that the newest of the services is faced with a stubborn sexual harassment problem.

Hitting the sand with the first wave in Operation Desert Shield, Marine Reservist Paul McHale knew he was an easy target if Saddam Hussein attacked during the lull while soldiers waited for supplies.Hussein hesitated, but now that McHale is serving his second term in Congress, the Pennsylvania Democrat is gung-ho for a Navy program that promises help for ground troops at their most vulnerable.Called the Arsenal Ship, the remote-control vessel would lurk offshore with about 1,000 missiles that almost anybody -- a Marine, a fighter pilot, the captain of another ship -- could summon quickly with a transmitted command.

County should halt projects on South HavenThere are two very controversial projects pending for the South Haven peninsula.First is the Beechwood-Heritage Nursing Home/Assisted Living complex proposed for an 11.2-acre site. This proposed 150,380-square-foot facility is about the size of all the buildings in the Annapolis Plaza and would be out of place. There are two narrow two-lane roads adjacent to the property. At least 250 employees would travel to the site daily. Add to that emergency vehicles, delivery and service vehicles and visitors, and that would equal a nightmarish traffic snarl.

WASHINGTON -- Adm. Jeremy "Mike" Boorda, the first sailor ever to rise from the ranks to become the Navy's top admiral, apparently killed himself yesterday at his home in the Washington Navy Yard. About two hours earlier he learned that his right to wear two Vietnam-era combat decorations was being questioned.Boorda, named chief of naval operations by President Clinton two years ago, left behind two written messages that officials described as suicide notes. They were sealed by investigators on the scene and not made public yesterday.