Navy Upholds Miramar Firing : Lehman Rejects Officer’s Appeal in Ashtray Case

The Navy has rejected an appeal to overturn the firing of a former supply officer at Miramar Naval Air Station for his role in purchasing aircraft ashtrays at $659 apiece, The Times has learned.

Navy Secretary John F. Lehman Jr. sent Cmdr. Jerry Fronabarger a tersely worded letter last week that said, “(The appeal) has been reviewed and no corrective action is required. Accordingly, your request is denied.”

But Fronabarger, who in August asked President Reagan, in a 45-page appeal, to publicly exonerate him, said he was “pleased” and “happy” with Lehman’s response, which included a series of three memos.

“To me this was like an answer to my prayers and an early Thanksgiving,” said Fronabarger, 44, who has served in the Navy for 18 years. “I really believe what they have put on paper can easily be understood as an affirmation that I was not removed for cause. . . . Politically, it becomes impossible for them to say what was done was not right. What they have to say and what they have said here is what we did was administratively correct without directly or straightforwardly addressing whether it was morally correct.”

However, Navy officials in Washington and San Diego described Fronabarger’s interpretation of Lehman’s action as “a pipe dream.”

One Navy spokesman, who asked not to be identified, said, “He’s just grasping at straws, the poor guy. What he has got to come to grips with is . . . that if your request for public exoneration is denied, your firing . . . is still in force.”

In addition, The Times has learned that Fronabarger was given a non-punitive letter of caution by Vice Adm. Crawford Easterling for his role as Miramar’s supply officer during the period that the Navy had paid $659 for two ashtrays for an E-2C Hawkeye electronic warfare plane; $400 for each of 17 wrench sockets designed to fit a bolt on an ejection seat, and $2,410 for ground lock for an F-14 Tomcat jet fighter. According to Navy sources, the contents of the letter have not been disavowed by the Navy.

Fronabarger was fired by Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger in late May along with Capt. Gary E. Hakanson and Rear Adm. Thomas J. Cassidy Jr. after media accounts of the ashtray purchases. Cassidy, who retired Sept. 1, was reinstated in late July after the Navy concluded an investigation into the firings. Weinberger left the firings of Fronabarger and Hakanson untouched.

Hakanson, who quietly retired on Aug. 1 and a few weeks later accepted a job with a private defense contractor, did not contest his dismissal. Fronabarger’s Navy-appointed attorney, Cmdr. William D. Hoover, appealed directly to Reagan.

In the appeal, Hoover wrote that Weinberger “saw red” over allegations of procurement abuses but “got the wrong person” when he fired Fronabarger. Hoover added that Fronabarger was “sentenced to a lifetime of humiliation” without so much as a hearing.

Fronabarger, who is now in Philadelphia with the Navy International Logistics Control Office as part of a transfer that was arranged before the ashtray scandal surfaced, said he received a letter dated Nov. 18 from Lehman that contained copies of memos between Weinberger, Lehman and Fred Fielding, White House special counsel.

Included in the package was an Oct. 16 memo from Lehman to Weinberger that said in part, “Cmdr. Fronabarger was relieved because after reviewing the circumstances I did not have confidence in his ability to serve effectively as supply officer of Naval Air Station Miramar. This was an administrative reassignment, not a punitive detachment for cause. Cmdr. Fronabarger’s record contains no adverse information that would suggest he was detached as a result of substandard performance.”

Fronabarger said: “I believe what we had here is an opportunity for (Lehman and Weinberger) to say something positive, and I think they said that. I think they took a long, hard look at the arguments made in the appeal and concluded there was no culpability found on anyone’s part at Miramar. They recognized that in fact I was not removed for any punitive reasons and . . . I must have been doing an adequate job.”

But Lt. Stephen Pietropaoli, a Navy spokesman in Washington, said the Navy has said all along that Fronabarger’s firing was an administrative action that by policy is not punitive and is not included in an individual’s personnel file.

“He says this amounts to a private exoneration, but from the Secretary of Navy it amounts to just that--a denial of his request for relief,” Pietropaoli said.