Sidetracked by ‘Boat People’ Episode : Balian Looks Back at Wreckage of a Career

Capt. Alexander G. Balian thought he was “headed for good things” in the Navy after 26 years that had brought him a Purple Heart, two Bronze stars and a stack of glowing evaluations. Not too many months ago, promotion to rear admiral seemed to be in sight.

But on Friday, Balian, 48, found himself trying to explain what appeared to be the end of the line for advancement in his Navy career. The culprits, he said, are the Navy legal system in general and a young prosecutor in particular, along with unidentified Navy officials and an incompetent crew on his ship.

“I don’t like failure,” Balian told reporters. “And this is failure.”

A court-martial had just found Balian guilty of dereliction of duty for failing to give adequate assistance last June to a group of Vietnamese refugees adrift in the South China Sea. He provided them with food, water and directions to the nearest land but decided not to take them aboard his ship, the amphibious transport Dubuque.

Drifted Another 19 Days

The refugees drifted for another 19 days before they were rescued by Philippine fishermen. Only 52 of the original 110 survived the harrowing 37-day voyage. They said they resorted to cannibalism to keep from starving.

The six Navy captains who heard the case ordered that Balian be given a letter of reprimand, the mildest punishment. Still, the conviction itself is enough to derail a Navy career, and Balian was angry.

Shortly after the penalty was announced, Balian entered a room crowded with reporters and talked for more than half an hour before stopping to take questions.

With his wife and daughter sitting behind him, Balian talked about his love of commanding ships, and how this had kept him in the Navy. Now, he said: “I never go back to command of anything. I sit at a desk somewhere, now that I’m allowed to stay in the Navy. I’m a seagoing sailor. This is not success.”

‘Railroaded off’ His Ship

At the top of his list of targets was the legal procedure that led to his court-martial, which he said would “make you sick.” He said he was “railroaded off’ his ship and that there had been “behind-the-scenes bad business going on” during the investigation.”

“I’m not saying the trial was unfair,” Balian said. “. . . But the procedures leading up to it were really dirty, and I think you should know.”

On several occasions, he said, he was denied a lawyer or denied permission to travel to San Diego to meet with his lawyers to prepare his defense. Of a Navy legal officer involved in preparing the charges, Balian said, “That man is unethical and unprofessional.” He would not identify the officer.

“I would ask the public to look at the military justice system . . . what goes on behind the scenes,” Balian said.

He said that Lt. Cmdr. Raymond H. Carlson, the prosecutor at his court-martial, had committed a number of offenses. During the court-martial, Carlson addressed the captains hearing the case as “gentlemen,” Balian complained, adding:

“I submit that’s a disgrace. I was embarrassed for the Navy, a lieutenant commander talking to senior captains.”

“What should he have said?” a reporter asked.

“Sirs,” Balian responded.

Balian said he was offended that Carlson accused him of not caring about the welfare of the refugees.

“I want to submit to you publicly and for everybody’s notice,” he said, “that that’s wrong. I care about the refugees. I care about people in distress. You’ve got a guy who’s never been to Vietnam, who’s never seen boat people, who wasn’t there. . . . That’s disgusting, disgraceful, unethical and unprofessional.”

Of his crew on the Dubuque, people he believes gave him incomplete and erroneous reports about the refugees, he said: “I also feel that the personnel that didn’t perform adequately, causing me to make the decision I made, should be held accountable.” Yet, he said, “I’m not trying to take anybody down.”

Balian had no kind words for his superiors in Washington. He said they had made him a scapegoat because the refugee incident was “politically messy for the Navy; the Navy was embarrassed.”

Balian, who has been living in Sasebo, Japan, where the Dubuque is based, will move to Washington and become assistant chief of staff for the Naval Telecommunications Command.

He said he will appeal his conviction and press the Navy to hold others accountable.

“It’s not over,” Balian said. “Nobody in the public should expect it to be over.”