Preface Admiral Jeremy Michael Boorda—An American Saga
Admiral Jeremy Michael Boorda, chief of naval operations (CNO)—born 26 November 1939, deceased 16 May 1996. Who was he? What is a chief of naval operations? Did he commit suicide? Was he a man who wore medals he didn’t deserve? Was his death part of a Clinton conspiracy? Why would he take his own life? Was he just a Pentagon paper pusher, a feather merchant? Did he ever go to sea? Why is there a six-pointed Jewish star on his Arlington National Cemetery tombstone? Another question is, how did this writer, a retired civil engineer, come to write the Boorda story? While chairing a 1997 Senior Members Panel at the American Society of Civil Engineers annual meeting in San Diego, CA, one panelist—a retired Navy Civil Engineering Corps officer—asked me a question. He asked if I’d ever been in the Navy, which I had, and if I ever had heard of Admiral Boorda, to which the answer was no. His response was to send me an article about the admiral. Having been a Navy enlisted man in 1945, I found the Boorda story interesting. Also, as Boorda was Jewish and being Jewish myself, I became curious about the Navy during Boorda’s time—a navy that promoted a mustang (an enlisted sailor who becomes a commissioned officer) and a Jew to the rank of CNO. Further research led to interviews with many interesting people—former chiefs of naval operations, numerous admirals, and other officers, enlisted personnel, and shipmates of Mike Boorda. The interview process also led to unanswered letters and phone calls … Rather than gripe, the decision was to write. What I discovered was that Admiral Boorda’s story is an American saga. It is a story of an American hero. His death is an American tragedy. Yet, there are no books written specifically about him. There was the usual media frenzy after his controversial death, but it was his life that was interesting and noteworthy—not just his death or his final tour as CNO. … What I also discovered in my research is that defining Michael Boorda requires an understanding of the history that created him, as well as an understanding of the navy that was his life This includes an exploration of that navy’s history and personnel. Learning about Boorda’s ancestry, his family, and the people of the U.S. Navy—his people—cannot be separated from an understanding of the man. I decided to include short biographies of the naval personnel and ships with which Boorda interacted. This not only fleshes out the U.S. Navy at that time, but also provides knowledge about the people who were sources of information for this book … Jeremy Michael “Mike” Boorda was born in South Bend, Indiana, in 1939. The Boorda family was a Jewish family that emigrated from Czarist Russia. When Mike was thirteen, he had the Jewish ceremony of entering manhood, a bar mitzvah … That same year, the family moved to Momence, Illinois. While attending Momence High School, Mike liked sports, drinking six packs of beer, or boating on the Kankakee River. He was not focused on his studies. At sixteen, his parents told to him to study or to leave school and go to work. Mike lied about his age and enlisted in the Navy. Boorda was an enlisted man for six years. He finished first in the class of several Navy schools. He married his wife, Bettie, and the Boordas had four children. Eventually, he was recommended to the Navy’s Seaman to Admiral Program, a version of officer candidate school, and he became a commissioned officer, an ensign. Sea duty was followed by shore duty, and then back to sea. Boorda became known as an outstanding ship handler. He did two tours on destroyers in Vietnamese waters during hostilities—as weapons officer on the first tour and as executive officer on the second. Both of his commanding officers received a “V” designation on their Vietnamese Theatre ribbons, signifying combat. Boorda rose in responsibility and rank. He … was instrumental in ending the Balkan conflict and in the humanitarian relief effort that followed. After forty years of service, he was named to the Navy’s top uniformed position, chief of naval operations. This is the bare outline of the life of the first enlisted man, non-Naval-Academy graduate, and Jew to become CNO. After more than two years in the position of CNO, Boorda had decided to ask for early retirement. The pressures were many, both in the Navy and at home. Then, he discovered he was about to be accused … in a Newsweek magazine article of wearing two medals he hadn’t earned—the V designations for serving under combat conditions in Vietnam. Officially, he may not have been awarded the two “V” devices on his ribbons, though he thought he was entitled to wear them, and certainly, he had earned them under combat conditions. The year before his death and before learning about the upcoming article, he had discovered that some believed he was not entitled to wear them, and he had removed them. He apparently ended his own life in May 1996, an American tragedy. …
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