ARMED FORCES

Stopped Cold

Hard-hitting Arleigh Burke was always a handy man to have around in a fight. In the South Pacific campaign he won the nickname "31-Knot Burke" from the speed with which he pushed his destroyer squadron into action. He became chief of staff in Marc Mitscher's mighty Task Force 58, won a chestful of medals, was promoted to the temporary rank of commodore. When the Navy's own war against the Air Force and the Defense Department broke out, Burke was assigned to head "Op-23," a compact and more or less secret Navy Department task force told off to organize and publicize the Navy's case.

As usual, Captain Burke drove ahead at flank speed. Under a promise from Defense Secretary Louis Johnson of no reprisals, he testified before the House Armed Services Committee last October, presented a dispassionate defense of the Navy's cherished supercarrier which Johnson had summarily ordered abandoned soon after the keel had been laid.

Last week Arleigh Burke, 48, found himself at the center of a fight for which he was poorly equipped. His name had appeared on a list of 22 captains recommended by a Navy selection board for promotion to rear admiral. Then, mysteriously, the board was reconvened and ordered to do its work over again. When it had finished that time, Burke's name was not on the list. It had been replaced by the name of Captain Richard P. Glass, Navy Secretary Francis Matthews' 51-year-old aide, who would be retired from service if he were passed over for promotion.

At week's end, 14 days after he had received the selection board's revised list, the President still had taken no action on it. Under the circumstances, however, there was little he could do but approve it. For doing his assigned job well and in complete obedience to the orders of his superiors, 31-Knot Burke, for the first time in his 26-year career, had been stopped cold.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.