STALKED by journalists who wanted to know why he wore two small "V" for valour pins he may not have been entitled to, the US navy's most senior officer, Admiral Jeremy "Mike" Boorda, went home and shot himself to death.
The news that the well liked Admiral Boorda, who climbed from the lowest rung in the navy to the highest, had shot himself, stunned the US capital yesterday. President Clinton slumped in his chair and closed his eyes when an aide told him the news as he was presiding at a meeting at Georgetown University.
Admiral Boorda (57), had served on a dozen warships and in overseas posts and went on to become a Nato commander in chief, Allied Forces Southern Europe.
He had appeared concerned hours before his death about queries by Newsweek magazine into two small, bronze "V" pins for personal valour which he had worn for years on two Vietnam War ribbons, a navy spokesman said. Admiral Boorda stopped wearing the pins about a year ago.
The Washington Post quoted police sources as saying the admiral left two notes saying he was upset because his honour and integrity were about to be questioned because of the decorations.
Both ABC Television and Newsweek reporters had called the Pentagon yesterday to ask to talk to Admiral Boorda.
"I met with him [Admiral Boorda]... he was concerned," Rear Admiral Kendell Pease, the navy's chief spokesman, told reporters. Admiral Pease quoted the admiral as saying, "I'll tell them [Newsweek] the truth" regarding the medals.
He said that Admiral Boorda's lunch was brought to him but that he declined to eat it and instead said he was going to his home across the Potomac River in central Washington. He was driven home and shot himself in the chest shortly after noon.
Admiral Pease gave reporters copies of two citations which Admiral Boorda was awarded for service in Vietnam in 1965 and between 1971 and 1973. But the awards did not specify that Admiral Boorda should wear a "V" enhancement on the medals. It is worn by those who receive commendations for acts during hostile fire.
"We deeply regret this tragedy" Newsweek said in a brief statement.
Admiral Boorda, a native of South Bend, Indiana who lied about his age to join the navy as a seaman in 1956, was known as the first so called "Mustang" ever to rise through the ranks to the top of the service. In 1994, the Admiral Boorda took over a navy battered in recent years by sexual scandal, warplane and ship accidents and cheating scandals at the naval academy.
But he had moved to rectify those problems and was extremely popular with fellow officers and enlisted personnel.
"His death is a great loss, not just for our navy and our armed forces, but for our country," President Clinton said.
Admiral Boorda moved quickly two years ago to put women into the cockpits of navy warplanes and into service aboard most classes of warships except submarines.
His death was another in a string of bad publicity that has damaged the navy since the 1991 Tailhook scandal.
Admiral Boorda and his wife, Bettie, have a daughter and three sons, two of them naval officers.
Perhaps the most high profile problem that has hit the navy in the past year was the firing of the Pacific Fleet commander, Admiral Richard Macke, after he said that US Marines would not have raped a Japanese schoolgirl if they had enough money to hire a prostitute.