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A man whose wisdom, moral courage and leadership was the guiding light for so many others during his service life in the Navy - a Navy that he loved and rightly regarded as a calling - culminating in his tour on active duty as Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff and on into his retirement years. The legendary Marine General John A. Lejeune once listed some of the leadership qualities required of a good officer as:
FIRMNESS - KINDNESS - JUSTNESS - SELF-CONTROL - UNSELFISHNESS HONOR and COURAGE Tom Moorer had all of these. I would add one other requirement that he possessed for the man at the very top. That is both the willingness and capability to accept immeasurable responsibility. He did, however, have one trait aside from the above for which I am eternally grateful. Tom Moorer loved to talk, was always willing to listen but he didn't like to write. I loved to listen and talk but I was willing to write - so together we put much of his wisdom down on paper, sometimes working until late at night until the words came out just right.The multitude of officers that surged to his side when he was deprived of his active duty staff following retirement, banded together as "Moorer's Boys" - emulating in our own way the role of "Preble's Boys" of 1812 War fame.With a driving ambition from early youth, Tom Moorer saw many avenues of endeavor to utilize his experience and knowledge. He could not let his life play out in pursuit of trivial things nor could he turn aside requests for his support on important issues vital to the nation. He delighted in being a player in "where cross the crowded ways of life" and remained so until the day of his death. Proving his courage and skill as an effective combat leader in World War II with the odds heavily stacked against him, Tom Moorer landed his crippled patrol plane following a shoot down by enemy fighters, then by saving his crew twice - first by getting them together in the water and onto a Philippine freighter and then by getting them to jump off before it sank after a second attack and into one of its lifeboats. Navigating it to a deserted island they were eventually rescued when the huge "SOS" was sighted that he had his men draw in the sand.Arriving in Australia in this fashion he came to the attention of General MacArthur. Called upon by the General to plan and carry out a night rescue of Australian "Special Forces" trapped in East Timor hundreds of miles within enemy lines, his execution was flawless, going precisely as planned. For this and other exploits he was decorated and following further combat patrols in the Pacific theatre he was ordered to Washington for duty on the staff of Admiral Ernest J. King. At that time Admiral King, as the Navy's Commander-in-Chief, had more power than any of his predecessors. His personality differed substantially from Tom Moorer's. An austere man, a hard taskmaster mercilessly unforgiving of incompetence in subordinates, he was soon convinced by Tom Moorer's calm demeanor and imaginative thinking that he was the man he wanted for a special mission in furtherance of the Joint Chiefs War Plans. Sent to England tasked to study allied mining operations in-depth he became an expert on mine warfare. It was knowledge that he retained and which proved of great value in later years when, as Pacific Fleet Commander and still later as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, he used it to hasten the end of the Vietnam War. Immediately following WWII Tom Moorer was assigned to participate in the strategic Bombing Survey that focused on the Pacific campaigns. He toured both Hiroshima and Nagasaki and interviewed the Emperor of Japan among others. He learned then that the primary considerations on the part of the Japanese high command that led to the preemptive attack on our forces at Pearl Harbor were:
In short we were unprepared and vulnerable. It was a lesson that he never forgot and one that he would repeat frequently to make the point on the need for modern arms, fully trained personnel and an adequate logistic pipeline. Most important of all the " perception of weakness" brought on by vacillation or hesitancy in defense of the nation was to be avoided at all costs.Tom Moorer, thus indoctrinated in grand strategy affairs, was constantly in demand for assignments to major command positions but not without first fulfilling his operational commitments each step of the way. Fated to be named to every major Navy command - the Pacific Fleet, the Atlantic Fleet, Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic, Chief of Naval Operations and finally as Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Vietnam War - Tom Moorer was constantly faced with decisions involving the lives of all service men world-wide. To him the major consideration was how to reduce casualties while pursuing the Vietnam War to a successful conclusion. Above all he was always thinking of his men. To this end, using his mine warfare background he had his Pacific Fleet staff prepare a plan for the 7th Fleet to mine Haiphong Harbor. It was submitted to Secretary of Defense McNamara but rejected by him on the excuse it would bring the Chinese into the conflict and that the Soviets would sweep the mines anyway. Pointing out that we didn't know then how to sweep them ourselves, Tom Moorer's plan was still denied. Years later, when Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and asked by President Nixon how long it would take to draw up such a plan, he replied "about twenty minutes." Explaining to a surprised President why he was so beforehand he got the authorization that he had wanted all along. We mined the harbor and in so doing we cut off the 92% of all war material that was used by North Vietnam to kill and maim our troops - most of it supplied in the ship bottoms of our allies. Had Tom Moorer's recommendations been acted upon favorably in the first place the names on that black memorial on the mall might have been reduced by an equivalent ninety two percent.Calling on his predecessor, General Earle Wheeler, when his appointment as Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff was confirmed, he found General Wheeler with his head in his hands in despair over a recent decision from above. Looking up he said "Tom, you will never survive." General Wheeler didn't take into account Tom Moorer's ability to bide his time. As he would answer the question of interviewers after the war as to why he did not resign when he knew that things were going wrong, he would reply that he knew he would be replaced by someone who would do exactly what they wanted done but he had the single objective of staying until he could get our POW's back. When negotiations for ending the Vietnam War were at an impasse on the certainty of the prisoners return President Nixon called on Tom Moorer for his recommendations. Telling the President that the enemy of that time could only be influenced by raw power and it was up to us to demonstrate it; he got the President's authority for the Christmas bombing of 1972 which all other advisors of the President opposed. Those POW's that were there including his former Naval Aide, Bill Lawrence, my former Ops Officer Jim Mulligan, Senator John McCain and Admiral and former Senator Jerry Denton seated here, will attest that when they heard that " clap of thunder" as those B-52's came in - they knew that after all those years of torture their country was finally coming for them and they were going home. In one hour they were cheering while their ruthless guards were trembling with fear thanks to Tom Moorer and the skill and guts of those Air Force crews plus the Navy pilots that supported them.Under the aegis of the organizations that he formed, inspired and directed such as the Association of Naval Aviation and Naval Aviation Foundation, he was always available to support the Navy and the other services in his testimony before the Congress. During the Carter years when it appeared that construction of future Aircraft Carriers would be confined to smaller, less capable ships than the big ones, his testimony before the House Armed Services Committee (beginning with the words "I am not running for office, bucking for promotion or looking for a job - but I have discovered the First Amendment") was the turning point in support of the larger ones that the professional active duty officers both required and wanted. [That was CVN-71, the U.S.S. THEODORE ROOSEVELT; the lead ship for five more big ones to follow and the Navy Secretary acknowledged the help of Tom Moorer's organization at her commissioning.]When the Naval Academy established the award for its most distinguished living graduate a few years ago Tom Moorer was the unanimous choice by class and individual alumni. Following that award he was asked to serve as a trustee of the Academy's Alumni Association. In accepting that honor he stated his intention to monitor the instruction that the Midshipmen were receiving in ethical and virtuous conduct. A model of decorum himself Tom Moorer was always a stickler regarding the requirement of exemplary conduct set forth in the law for the Navy and Marine Corps stemming from the days of John Adams and the Second Continental Congress. It remained in the law as Section 5947, Title 10, U.S. Code; requiring officers to show in themselves "a good example of virtue, honor, patriotism and subordination - to guard against and suppress all dissolute and immoral practices --." To Tom Moorer morality and discipline went hand-in-hand. It was his view that had that provision of the law been properly implemented immediately to punish with an even hand ALL the miscreants involved in recent scandals, grave injustices would have been avoided that were so damaging to the Navy's image.Further, in response to a request from the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the House, he referenced that same section of the law (which had also been extended by the Congress in 1997 to cover the Army and Air Force); pointing out that although the duties of the Commander-in-Chief were specified by the Constitution as opposed to military law and regulations, the failure of the nation's Chief Executive to behave at least in accordance with law's strictures for his officers had a "corrosive effect (that was) devastating on the good order and discipline of the Armed Forces." Although he never wore his religion on his sleeve, Tom Moorer was a man of faith. As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs he had been at the forefront in the legal fight to preserve mandatory chapel at the Naval Academy against the suit brought by the ACLU where he won at first but then lost on appeal. But in recent actions akin to mandatory chapel at the Naval Academy, such as the suit to deny mealtime prayer to VMI Cadets - recognizing that the ACLU's ultimate target is the U.S. Naval Academy and even our capital ships at sea - he authorized the use of Naval Aviation Foundation funds to support a Friend-of- the-Court brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in opposition to the ACLU position. In Tom Moorer's view it was foolish to deny prayer to an institution and services formed to train and deploy men for combat in defense of the nation. Prayer and especially unit led prayer can be a great morale booster for the troops going into battle as General George Patton proved in the Bulge with his Christmas Day prayer before Bastogne. Always a seeker after the truth and willing to take a public stand against injustice he put his national reputation on the line in defense of the survivors of the attack on the U.S.S. LIBERTY. He knew that the ready availability of our airpower could have eliminated any shooting on the part of either side by the mere presence of our forces and nothing else. What Tom Moorer wanted was an answer to why our forces were recalled. If it was so important to leave those brave men unprotected so that they could be killed by either an accident or on purpose, then why could not the American people have been so informed?More than anything else Tom Moorer was concerned with how the men on that ship had been treated in an effort to cover the tracks of those in authority who were responsible for their fate. Why should the U.S.S.LIBERTY and the men who were killed and wounded become a pariah and their story virtually untouchable when their valiant efforts to save their ship so exemplified the U.S. Navy's motto: "Don't Give Up the Ship?" One evening thirty years ago, shortly after Tom Moorer had retired as JCS Chairman a young medical student on a scholarship and a complete stranger, called him at home to ask his advice as to why he should choose the Navy as a career as opposed to the other services. A friend and former Air Force officer with whom he was acquainted, knowing that he was having trouble making up his mind, had put the name Moorer down on a piece of paper with a phone number and suggested he call that man as the best reference for the Navy he could find. The young student, now a Medical Corps Flag Officer, remembered that conversation and how Tom Moorer had been willing to answer all his questions - spending at least forty five minutes on the phone with him and convincing him that the Navy was the way he should go. Moving ahead to the present, when Carrie Moorer called to say that Tom had been taken to the hospital at Bethesda following what appeared to be a stroke I made it a point to go there that day to the office of the hospital commanding officer, Rear Admiral (MC) Don Arthur, who is also my friend and neighbor. Asking Don Arthur where I might find Admiral Moorer now that he was his patient he found his room number and said "come with me." Walking into his room Tom Moorer stretched out his hand to me which I took and then introduced Don Arthur to him as his commanding officer of his hospital, saying that "he will take good care of you." They shook hands and following a short visit we bid him good-bye. While walking away Don Arthur told the above story to me of how Tom Moorer was the man who had so influenced his life thirty years before and that this was their first meeting.
As an answer I would submit that in the annals of the United States Navy no Admiral of the last century has more right to be placed on the same plane and shoulder to shoulder with Chester Nimitz and Arliegh Burke than Thomas Moorer. We have CV-69 named for Chester Nimitz. We have DDG-51 and a whole class of Destroyers named for Arleigh Burke. The greatest gift that this nation could bestow in memory of Tomas Moorer would be to name one of our big carriers in the navy's building program for him so that great ship with his name on the stern would be seen and known with honor around the world for years to come. I know that there are many people here today that can help make it so. Return to: Home Mark Hill Corner Women in Combat America is at War Books Praise for Book |
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