Word: aspin
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...NAVY HAS RECOMMENDED TO SECRETARY OF DEFENSE Les Aspin that women be allowed to serve in all combat positions -- except in submarines, where quarters are close. But because the Air Force still adamantly opposes using women in fighter and bomber combat aircraft, Aspin doesn't want to take on the Air Force now over this issue. He has asked the Navy to hold off on putting women into combat aircraft. Personally, the Secretary believes that prohibition should be lifted...
...odds with his military. According to a White House insider, Crowe offered a two-pronged strategy for handling the balky Pentagon brass and disrespectful rank and file: woo them with charm, but keep them in line with a firm hand. More precisely, Clinton was told, Defense Secretary Les Aspin "has to get tough and make them salute...
Rudenstine stressed his own opposition to the ban on the grounds of fairness in general "I have stated my view on this subject on a number of occasions including recent letters to Secretary of Defense Les Aspin and Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen.. Sam Nunn," he said...
...inevitable, however, for Aspin is not everybody's cup of tea. Many members of Congress, especially in the liberal wing, believe he betrayed them by supporting such weapons systems as the B-2 and Strategic Defense Initiative. For all his charm, he is a loner, a shy person who finds it distasteful to court constituents. "Don't try to describe Les as a real human being," says an associate with a laugh. His big smile and firm abrazo notwithstanding, he isn't captivated with small talk. Says a friend, "As he whispers in your ear, his thoughts...
...most painful criticism of all for Aspin is that he remains conceptually a Congressman, with neither the administrative experience nor the decisiveness necessary at the Pentagon. He laughed out loud hearing himself described in one profile as "Hamlet, the Prince of Indecision." Congressman John Spratt of South Carolina, Aspin's colleague on the Armed Services Committee, declares this as nonsense. "Les is decisive when the time comes." Now it has arrived. He must assemble a staff, help broker a compromise on gays in the service and defend his Administration's historic downsizing of the world's largest military force...