El Toro General Gets 2nd Star but Aims Higher Still : Marines: Harry Blot, interim commander of the western bases, wants to lead the 3rd Aircraft Wing.

Even as Harry Blot was getting a second star pinned on the collar of his Marine Corps camouflage utility uniform Friday morning, the general was already looking past that promotion to higher goals.

“The nice thing,” Blot told a crowd of high-ranking officers at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, is that his promotion to major general puts him in line “for other jobs I would like to get.”

The 52-year-old aviator cast a quick glance at his current boss, Maj. Gen. Royal N. Moore Jr., as he made the remark, but he needn’t have bothered. Everyone in the crowd, laughing, knew what he meant.

Blot, a 28-year veteran, is now the interim commander of the western air bases, an appointment that came about after a scandal at El Toro over base aircraft use. Blot has his sights set on Moore’s job as commander of the 3rd Aircraft Wing, which, with nearly 500 aircraft, is the biggest in the Marine Corps.

That possibility is only one of several job changes open to conjecture at a time of near-unprecedented change in the top command at El Toro that was caused in part by the departure this month of Brig. Gen. Wayne T. Adams, the previous commander of the western air bases.

Adams was relieved of his command and reassigned to Virginia amid an investigation into his use of base planes.

The most likely scenario--one widely and openly speculated on at El Toro--has Blot moving up to the 3rd Air Wing command if Moore--who led more than 16,000 aviators in the Persian Gulf War--is reassigned to Hawaii to head the Fleet Marine Force Pacific, the largest field command in the Marine Corps. A third star would come with that promotion for Moore.

And, goes some officials’ prediction, with Blot moving out of his interim command over the western air bases at El Toro, Brig. Gen. Drax Williams, now a legislative assistant to the Marine Corps commandant and public affairs director, would take over the base command at El Toro.

The western base commander oversees security, housing, supplies and other operations for the air bases at El Toro, Tustin, Camp Pendleton, and Yuma, Ariz. There are more than 4,500 civilian and military personnel on the four bases.

The air wing commander is responsible for the tactical operations of the aviation units that are the bases’ principal tenants. The 3rd Air Wing is based at El Toro but can move into action within a matter of days or weeks--as happened during Operation Desert Shield.

Maj. Nancy LaLuntas, a spokeswoman for the Marine Corps in Washington, said the “generals slate,” which has the answers on the futures of Moore, Blot and others, could come out any time now.

“We’ve been expecting this thing for days now,” she said Friday.

The speculation will stay hot until then. And in recent days, it has been become more open on the base.

Col. Jack Wagner, who put off his retirement until this summer to take over as chief of staff at El Toro after Col. Joseph E. Underwood was fired for misusing military planes in January, said of the possibility that Blot will be appointed to the 3rd Air Wing command: “That seems to be the only rumor in town.”

Said Blot himself of his chances: “It’s not a done deal until it’s done, but it’s looking good.”

In the meantime, he was calling his promotion to a second star “a highlight of my career.” He said it compares only to his being named general in 1988 and a few particularly memorable flights--such as the one in which he managed to land his plane at Edwards Air Force base despite the loss of a key part during a flameout test.

For a Marine officer, one of the toughest hurdles is getting the single star of a brigadier general; only about 10% of all colonels make it that far. Of the one-stars, about 60% to 70% will get the second star of the major general, LaLuntas said.

Blot now has the second star, the title and the responsibilities of a major general, but because of a backlog, will not get the pay increase until several generals retire, LaLuntas said. That will mean a raise from about $71,800 a year to about $81,400.

Moore spared no praise for his assistant at Friday’s ceremony.

During his own stint in Saudi Arabia, Moore said, Blot--manning the remnants of the wing at home in Orange County--had been his “sounding board” on an array of matters. He called him “a super Marine” and “the father of all Harriers”--a reference to the revolutionary attack jet that can take off and land vertically--that Blot helped to test.

Moore concluded: “He has an awful lot to give our Corps in the future.”

Times staff writer George Frank contributed to this report.