Retiring Kitty Hawk Captain Considers Waging Political War

Capt. Phillip R. Wood, who relinquished command of the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk on Friday, said he is considering running for Congress against Rep. Jim Bates, the San Diego Democrat who launched charges of supply irregularities aboard Wood’s ship.

Wood and Bates have been feuding ever since Petty Officer 2nd Class Robert Jackson went to the congressman’s office in July with allegations that the Kitty Hawk supply system was riddled with widespread fraud, theft and waste.

Bates attracted nationwide publicity by initiating a congressional inquiry and waging a campaign to reform the Navy supply system. In doing so, Bates was widely criticized by Navy officials in San Diego for making the charges.

Wood said that some San Diego leaders have encouraged him to run against Bates, who has represented the heavily Democratic 44th District in Chula Vista and National City since it was created in 1982.

“I’ve got support lined up, and money is not a problem,” Wood said Friday. “The question is, do I want to sacrifice my private life. I’m not sure I want to do that.”

Wood will retire March 31 after 31 years in the Navy.

“Bates is a hard campaigner,” Wood said. “I’d love to go in there and compete with him and discuss the issues. I love to fight.”

But Wood said he is “bothered” by the prospect of having to forfeit his $40,000-a-year pension to the federal government if he were elected. He said he would run against Bates if he could donate the money to charity.

Under federal law, Wood could not collect his pension benefits and the $75,100-a-year salary as a congressman at the same time. His retirement income would resume after leaving office.

When told Saturday that Wood was considering running against him, Bates said, “That’s great. I think it would be good if he did. It would highlight and focus on the issues we face in improving our defense and the costs of defense.

“It would also give me the opportunity to clarify some of the misinformation on the Kitty Hawk that (Adm. James E. Service) has offered.

“The more the merrier; it’s good for the process.”

Wood, 52, capped a long and highly successful career Friday when he turned over the helm of the Kitty Hawk to Capt. David Hoffman.

When Wood enrolled in boot camp in San Diego in 1950, there was little reason to expect he would ever get promoted beyond the rank of petty officer.

Then a 17-year-old high school dropout, Wood had run away from his Topeka, Kan., home to work in the fields of Colorado before joining the Navy. With those credentials today, the Navy would reject his application.

Wood worked his way up the chain of command by attending the Naval Postgraduate School and earning 13 air medals as a fighter pilot.

During an elaborate ceremony Friday in the ship’s hangar bay, Navy admirals presented Wood with the Legion of Merit for distinguished military service and the Adm. James Flatley Memorial Award for guiding the safest aircraft carrier in the U.S. fleet during 1985.

For most senior officers, such honors would mark a triumphant ending to a storybook naval career. But Wood, who insists he is “going out a winner,” is still smarting over the allegations launched by Bates and Jackson and the Navy’s handling of the entire affair.

“People assume and think that because of all the things going on I’m going out of the Navy a bitter man,” Wood said at the start of a recent interview. “It couldn’t be anything but just completely the opposite . . . I don’t feel like my career has been hurt by any of these investigations.”

But as the 90-minute interview progressed, Wood expressed frustration with the Navy for failing to respond to the negative publicity and lashed out at Bates and Jackson.

Wood said that when the charges were initially publicized, he wanted to tell his side of the story to the media. But he said senior Navy officials refused to let him be interviewed by the press before he left San Diego in July for a six-month deployment in the western Pacific.

“I was frustrated because I knew what the other side of the story was, and we were not commenting,” Wood said. “There were a lot of things available to me that I knew that were going on that I thought the press ought to know, but (the Navy) wouldn’t say a word . . . I was isolated at sea.”

After investigating Jackson’s charges, the Navy issued Wood a non-punitive letter of caution for his “deviation from accepted standards in supply and financial mismanagement.” The probe found that Wood used Navy funds to make improper purchases of flowers for his cabin.

Wood said that as commanding officer of an aircraft carrier, he is expected to entertain guests both at home and abroad and pay for most of the expenses out of his own pocket.

“(The Navy) said I was going to pay back the fresh flowers,” Wood said angrily. “They didn’t mention anything about the $3,000 plus I had spent entertaining 210 people aboard my ship out of my own (pocket). . . .”

Wood pointed to the vase of fresh flowers on a nearby table and said, “They were given to me free, because I’m not going to pay for them myself.”

Wood also chastised Bates and Jackson for trying to take credit for a Navy investigation into the disappearance of 31 silver bars worth $1,000 apiece from the Kitty Hawk. Wood said that the theft took place before he assumed command of the ship and that he reopened the investigation.

Last month, Bates issued a press release in which he accused the Navy of trying to put the blame for the Kitty Hawk supply problems on him and Jackson. Bates also said that Wood would never gain the rank of admiral because of the investigation findings.

Wood replied, “Jim Bates may not be elected to Congress next time, and he might concern himself more about taking care of his constituents down there in Chula Vista and National City.”