Navy Secretary Fires Broadside at Military Role in War on Drugs

Blasting legislation that would require the military to block the U.S. border as “absurd” and “childish,” Navy Secretary John F. Lehman Jr. said last week that he strongly opposes using the armed forces to make arrests or lead the nation in a war against drugs.

“That is what always has made the United States very different from any police state,” Lehman told The Times in an interview Thursday. “We never should cede police powers to the military. For the expedient issue of the day it is easy to rationalize it away, but it is a fundamental threshold that should never be crossed.”

Lehman, 44, said the military’s readiness mission would suffer if troops suddenly neglected their warfare training to mount a blockade across the nation’s 17,000-mile border.

“That’s not what the military is for . . . “ Lehman said. “Military readiness has been hard won these last five years. The Navy and all of the services were basket cases in 1979, 1980, and we could not get the job done. Morale was rotten because nobody believed they could do what they were supposed to be doing. Everybody believed they were going to lose if the fighting started. It’s taken us five years and a lot of money to restore that.”

In a relaxed, 45-minute interview outside his sea cabin at North Island Naval Air Station, Lehman discussed a wide range of issues, including his support of tough new drug testing requirements for Navy civilian employees.

The secretary also said he sees no contradiction in the Navy permitting Ens. Napoleon McCallum to play professional football for the Los Angeles Raiders and the Marine Corps’ decision last week to turn down a transfer that would have allowed 1st Lt. Eddie Meyers a chance to join the Atlanta Falcons. Both are graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy.

Lehman acknowledged the Navy’s continuing troubles in keeping track of millions of big-ticket supply items aboard aircraft carriers, and said the Navy has learned a good lesson from the inventory problems that plagued the Kitty Hawk last year.

An internal audit report released Friday revealed that the Navy could not account for nearly $320 million in aircraft parts aboard its 14 carriers. Blaming the inventory shortages on antiquated computers, Lehman said he is pushing to allow supply personnel to purchase computers on the local level instead of being issued equipment from Washington.

“Very often, we found in the fleet guys have gone out with their own money and bought Radio Shack computers because, out of frustration, they could not wait for the system to procure the approved system computer,” Lehman said.

Clad in the green aviation jump suit and black boots he wore while piloting a UH-1 Navy helicopter over San Diego Bay, Lehman attacked proposed legislation requiring the military to block any unauthorized ships or aircraft from crossing the nation’s border or entering any of its ports.

The measure, passed by the House on a 237-177 vote, would vastly expand the use of the military in the Reagan Administration’s “war on drugs.” It directs the President to deploy the armed services to halt all narcotics traffic within 45 days by using troops and equipment to locate, pursue and seize ships and aircraft smuggling the contraband, and arrest their crews.

Rep. Duncan L. Hunter (R-Coronado), the measure’s sponsor, has called the proposal “the one thing that will stop the flow of narcotics into this country in the near term.”

Last week, the Senate passed a version that does not call for such extensive use of the military. A House-Senate conference committee is working to resolve the differences.

Lehman said those who voted for the House measure are underestimating the expertise and training necessary for military personnel to operate sophisticated aircraft and weapons systems, Lehman said.

“It’s just like playing tennis professionally, flying aircraft aboard carriers, or playing the violin,” Lehman said. “You’ve got to do it.

“To say to those guys, ‘Don’t have them play their violins. Have them go beat dishpans together down at the border. They’ll be just as ready.’ Well, they won’t be just as ready. You’re giving up something when you go do that task.”

Nonetheless, he said the Navy is eager to lend assistance to the nation’s drug enforcement effort, but only as a part of its ongoing operations. He emphasized that the Navy has flown 10,000 hours in drug interdiction flights this year.

Lehman said he would like to see a computer network established that would allow the Navy to share intelligence information with the Coast Guard and U.S. Customs.

“So when a P-3 is out on anti-submarine warfare patrol, it ought to be tasked and trained how to also look for dopers and report (them),” Lehman said.

Lehman defended the Navy’s strict drug screening policy for its 356,000-member civilian work force, announced last month. Under the program, civilian workers face dismissal if they test positively for use of illegal drugs. They will not be provided free drug rehabilitation services like that given to active-duty sailors.

“The attitude is very definitely a change from treating it as a social disease in which our principal objective is rehabilitation to a zero tolerance of it,” Lehman said. “What we’re saying is that, while, as human beings, we have compassion for people who have fallen into problems of abuse of drugs . . . our institutional function is not rehabilitation or social engineering.”

The random urinalysis testing would cover as many as 7,000 civilian employees of the Navy and Marine Corps in San Diego County.

Lehman visited San Diego on Thursday as part of a two-day West Coast trip that included an appearance Friday at a convention for naval aviators in Las Vegas. He began his visit here by flying a helicopter from North Island to the amphibious assault ship Belleau Wood, earning points for landings and take-offs required to maintain his Naval Reserve standing.

During a luncheon at the Westgate Hotel with business and civic leaders, Lehman defended his fleet dispersal plan. He said San Diego shipyards would not lose jobs or contracts, despite plans to move Navy ships from San Diego to other West Coast ports.

He spent the afternoon listening to executives at National Steel & Shipbuilding Co. complain about the lack of ship repair business on the West Coast. Lehman did not appear overly sympathetic to Nassco’s concerns. He said that, since the Navy will reach the 600-ship level in 1989, shipyards that offer competitive bids will continue to receive their share of naval repair projects.

On his helicopter hop back to North Island, Lehman grew excited when he learned that his co-pilot, Cmdr. William M. Calhoun, served as air boss of the amphibious assault ship Peleliu, where McCallum, the Raiders’ running back, is assigned in Long Beach. Lehman asked Calhoun how McCallum was doing.

“His schedule is a real one,” Calhoun told Lehman. “He works like the rest of us. He’s a very nice man. He’s got a lot of support. We all felt really bad when he fumbled in that first game.”

Lehman was obviously pleased, and asked Calhoun to say hello to McCallum for him.

“I’ll tell him in the morning, sir,” Calhoun said.

When Lehman jumped out of the helicopter at North Island, he immediately told a senior officer awaiting his arrival about McCallum.

“He’s doing A-OK,” Lehman reported. “That’s great to hear.”

During the interview, Lehman insisted that McCallum will get no special treatment from the Navy. He added that McCallum is being allowed to moonlight like any other sailor, provided his work does not pose a conflict of interest or interferes with his duty assignment.

“He is working a tremendous, hard schedule . . . “ Lehman said. “I think there’d be a real problem for a lesser person than McCallum.”

Lehman said he applied the same set of criteria in judging Meyers’ case, but that Meyers’ commanding officer at Camp Pendleton ruled that transferring Meyers to Atlanta was not in the best interest of the Marine Corps.

“If the commandant had come to me and said the interests of the Marine Corps would be best served by transferring Meyers to the supply center in Atlanta and ‘Oh, by the way, he’s probably going to play ball,’ then I would have approved it,” Lehman said.

Lehman noted that McCallum will have to attend naval supply school in January. And if his assignment interferes with the National Football League playoffs?

“If he has accumulated leave for the Super Bowl, maybe he can do that. But if it interferes with his course, maybe he can’t,” Lehman said. “We’re not giving him carte blanche. We’re certainly not going to throw any obstacles in his course just to show we’re being tough on him.”