General Who Falsified Test to Resign From Marine Corps : Military: Lt. Gen. Royal N. Moore Jr. passed off junior officer’s exam work as his own when he was in command of El Toro-based 3rd Aircraft Wing.

Lt. Gen. Royal N. Moore Jr., commander of nearly two-thirds of the Marine Corps’ fighting force, has submitted his resignation after a reprimand by Pentagon officials who discovered that he falsified a flight test and then lied about his actions.

Moore, the top Marine aviator during the Persian Gulf War, had a junior officer take a substantial portion of a flight test that qualified him to fly a particular aircraft and then passed it off as his own work, said Maj. Nancy LaLuntas, a Marine spokeswoman in Washington.

The flight test was submitted in August, 1990, when then-Maj. Gen. Moore was in command of the El Toro-based 3rd Aircraft Wing, which was deployed to the Middle East in support of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

LaLuntas likened the general’s action to “taking a driver’s license test and having somebody else take the written part.”

The three-star general commands the 60,000-member Fleet Marine Force Pacific, headquartered at Camp H.M. Smith, near Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He is a highly decorated officer who was honored with the prestigious Distinguished Service Medal for his part in the Persian Gulf War.

According to LaLuntas, Moore’s improprieties centered on the Naval Air Training and Operating Procedures Standardization test, which he needed to pass to re-qualify as a pilot on the EA-6B Prowler--the Marine’s top electronic-warfare aircraft.

“He had previously flown the Prowler, but it had been several years since he had qualified for it,” LaLuntas said. She declined to speculate on why Moore had another officer take part of the test for him.

“The test,” LaLuntas said, “is to ensure knowledge of aircraft performance, perimeters of operation, systems chart usage and emergency procedures necessary to safely operate the aircraft.”

Moore initially denied he had done anything wrong when questioned by investigators from the Department of Defense inspector general’s office, but later admitted he had acted improperly, LaLuntas said.

The investigation into Moore’s actions ended with a letter of censure from the secretary of the Navy that was placed in his permanent service record. The investigation is continuing into any possible wrongdoings by other officers, including the junior officer who took the test for Moore, LaLuntas said.

The junior officer was not identified.

Moore, who took command of the Fleet Marine Force Pacific in August, 1991, will resign effective July 1, LaLuntas said. No replacement has been named.

LaLuntas said Pentagon officials were alerted to the Moore’s improprieties by an officer in Moore’s command. The officer apparently made an allegation about Moore’s action during a rebuttal of his own fitness report. LaLuntas did not elaborate.

Lt. Col. Ron Stokes, a spokesman for the Fleet Marine Force Pacific, said Moore was traveling and unavailable for comment.

Moore has a reputation as a no-nonsense warrior who flew more than 300 combat missions, most of them in Vietnam. During the Persian Gulf War, Moore was the top Marine air commander.

His aircraft, flying out of Bahrain and bases in Saudi Arabia, were among the first to strike Iraq in pre-dawn attacks on Jan. 17, 1991, after Iraqi President Saddam Hussein failed to withdraw his forces from Kuwait before the deadline imposed by the United Nations.

During the war, Moore flew 18 missions over Kuwait and Iraq, saying he would rather fly in combat than remain in the relative safety of the command headquarters.

“The way I choose to know my pilots is to fly with them,” Moore told a Times reporter after the war. “There was no way I could send those guys out unless I did it myself.”

After the war, Moore was awarded his third star and promoted to command the Fleet Marine Force Pacific. That command includes air and ground forces from Camp Pendleton, Twentynine Palms, Hawaii, Japan, El Toro, Tustin and Yuma, Ariz.

Moore is the third top Marine official to step down after allegations of abuses of rank while at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Brig. Gen. Wayne T. Adams and Col. Joseph Underwood retired after investigations that revealed they used military aircraft for personal uses.