Team Player for the Joint Chiefs

And the Air Force keeps flying high

As a newly appointed aide to Strategic Air Command Boss Curtis LeMay, Lieut. Colonel David C. Jones was apprehensive when he planned a 1956 flight with the tough-talking general to Goose Bay in Labrador. Jones' concern turned out to be justified. LeMay walked unexpectedly through a door in the C-97, and a startled flight engineer dropped a hatch, which hit the general on the head. Next a crewman guarding another open hatch was distracted just as LeMay approached, and the commander fell into the hole, suffering scratches and bruises. Finally, LeMay was walking forward in the aircraft, lighting his ever present cigar, when someone unintentionally slammed a door in his face. "I think they're trying to kill me," LeMay grumbled.

"After that," Jones recalls, "we operated a little more efficiently." Davey Jones not only survived that trip, but he has functioned so efficiently ever since that last week he was named by President Jimmy Carter to become the new head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In an otherwise routine shift of three top-level military commands, Jones, 56, and the Air Force won an unexpected victory by gaining the two-year appointment to the nation's highest uniformed post at a time when traditional rotation policy would have turned it over to the Army. Jones will succeed another Air Force general, the controversial and talkative George S. Brown, on July 1. That is when Brown, who is ill with cancer of the prostate will complete his second term.

The elevation of the hard-driving Jones, whose dark circles under the eyes accurately convey the career-long intensity of his striving for the top, was interpreted at the Pentagon as a reward for the relative combat readiness of the Air Force, as well as for Jones' own willingness to go along with White House-approved defense policies. Jones, as Air Force Chief of Staff, fought hard for production of the B-l bomber but refused to wage any further fight to save it once the President had made his decision against the aircraft. Similarly, Jones argued both publicly and privately in behalf of the Panama Canal treaties negotiated by the Administration. Former Navyman Carter was known to be unhappy with the Navy, which has been openly fighting for more carriers and a bigger role in defense strategy. It has also been plagued by poor management as various shipbuilding programs have incurred delays and huge cost overruns. As for the Army, Chief of Staff Bernard Rogers made it clear that he did not want the J.C.S. chairmanship.

While it was not the Navy's turn to head the joint chiefs, some Pentagon observers saw a message for that service in the retention of the post by the Air Force. "The Administration wants no boat-rockers in the new J.C.S.," said one civilian defense official. "The Administration is telling the Navy that if it wants to play rough, the Administration can play rougher."

To replace Jones as Air Force Chief of Staff, Carter has selected General Lew Allen Jr., a tall, bald and brilliant noncombat officer with expertise as a nuclear physicist and advanced-weapons specialist. Allen, 52, has headed the supersecret National Security Agency and is a missileman who talks the same kind of technical language as Defense Secretary Harold Brown. The third shift is the promotion of Admiral Thomas B. Hayward, 53, commander of the Pacific Fleet, to succeed Admiral James L. Holloway III as Chief of Naval Operations. Holloway's four-year term as the Navy's highest officer will also expire in June. Another admiral with long carrier experience, Hayward was widely favored within the Navy for the top job. Says one Pentagon insider: "It's really amazing. When the admirals talk about one another, they usually say, 'He's very good, but ...' With Hayward you never hear a 'but.' "

General Jones, who has got ahead as a team player, is not likely to repeat the Navy's rebellious behavior. Born in Aberdeen, S. Dak., he developed his interest in aviation as a boy growing up in Minot, N. Dak., where he would visit a small airport and talk to pilots. Jones was a flying instructor during World War II, a bomber pilot in Korea and a director of operations and vice commander of the Seventh Air Force in Viet Nam.

A budget-conscious commander who has often drawn fire from subordinates for his staffing and airbase-facilities cutbacks, Jones has a compensating reputation as what a Pentagon aide calls a "people person." He has, for example, insisted on equality of treatment for blacks within the Air Force. When a USAF air-person won a nude beauty contest in Florida last year, some officials nervously brought the matter to Jones' attention during a staff conference. After a report on the incident was read, there was a moment of silence. Jones settled the question by observing, "Well, she wasn't in uniform, was she?"

Jones dislikes formal briefing sessions and military posturing, which he terms "the look-good syndrome." He insists instead on his subordinate officers' pushing just as hard as he does for practical proficiency in their jobs. "Anyone who feels he has done everything in his job that needed doing simply didn't set his goals high enough," he contends. Davey Jones has set his personal sights high indeed --but even though he has reached the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs, no one expects him to relax now.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.