New Jobs, New Stars

Some of the Navy's admirals got a shaking around last week; a shower of stars fell among others.

Two John Henrys. Advocates of a wider use of naval air power cheered when the Navy boosted its No. 1 aviator into the job of deputy commander in the Pacific--in the nation's current strategy the No. 2 operations job. The airman: quiet, serious, 59-year-old Vice Admiral John Henry Towers.

Jack Towers, who began his flying career in 1911 and has stuck with aviation ever since, has never been a crier-out against the Navy's slowness in exploiting air power. But he has been a privately bitter critic. In 1942 the Navy shipped him out to Pearl Harbor as Commander of Air in the Pacific, a high-sounding title for a smothered, largely administrative assignment. Now Aviator Towers, well out of the doghouse, towers at the right hand of the Pacific's canny commander-in-chief, Admiral Chester Nimitz.

To the South Pacific as deputy commander went the man Towers succeeded, 62-year-old Vice Admiral John Henry Newton, who has commanded destroyer and cruiser divisions during his tours of sea duty. To succeed Towers: Rear Admiral Charles A. ("Baldy") Pownall, who bossed a carrier force in the Gilberts invasion.

Five Flags. Pleased with the success of the Marshalls operation, Navy-minded Franklin Roosevelt last week nominated Vice Admiral Raymond Spruance as a full admiral, Rear Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner as a vice.

Recognition of the two men who ran the Marshalls show was also a sop to admirals at sea who would be more than likely to resent the promotions of three landbound rear admirals to three stars. The three, all capable bureau chiefs: bull-necked Ben Moreell (Yards and Docks); Ross T. Mclntire (Medicine); Randall Jacobs (Personnel).

Last week the Senate confirmed their nominations as vice admirals and set a precedent. Mclntire (Johns Hopkins) and Moreell (hard knocks) were the first nonAcademy men ever to reach the rank before retirement.

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