SPIT AND ABOLISH

By MARK THOMPSON

There's a whole lot of shakin' going on inside Pentagon combat boots as President Clinton prepares to pick a new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The reason is that one of two top candidates is a tough-talking Leatherneck who thinks today's military are deployed too often for too long and are buying too many weapons at too high a price. The appointment of Marine General John Sheehan, commander of the U.S. Atlantic Command (his main rival is the current Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman, Air Force General Joseph Ralston), would make him the first Marine to serve as the nation's top military officer and could spur serious change. The 6-ft. 2-in. Bostonian and decorated Vietnam vet has riled the Air Force by questioning costly new warplanes, unnerved the Navy by doubting the value of carriers and irked the Army by suggesting the mothballing of some tanks.

--By Mark Thompson