Father Sought to Shorten Perot’s Active Navy Duty, Letters Show

When Ross Perot was a 25-year-old Navy lieutenant, his father asked then Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson and Texas’ other senator to intervene and help Perot to cut short his active duty obligation, according to correspondence from that period.

In correspondence examined in both Austin and Liberty, Tex., Ross Perot Sr., a Texarkana cotton broker, sent letters to Johnson and Sen. Price Daniel in 1955 asking them to use their influence with the secretary of the Navy and allow Perot to resign his commission.

“Ross has definitely made up his mind that he does not wish to make the Navy his career and is very anxious to be released,” the letter to Daniel said. “Inasmuch as we are not in war at this time and the Navy is just training a young officer who desires to be released I was wondering if you could assist us in this matter through the secretary of the Navy. I would be glad to take care of any expense that might be incurred.”

Perot, who is readying an independent presidential bid, said in a statement Thursday that he wanted to resign because a senior officer had ordered him to “carry out illegal acts” while serving on the destroyer Sigourney. Perot, then chief engineer on the ship, said he refused.

In a recent Newsweek interview, Perot said he did not get along with the commander of the Sigourney and balked when he was ordered to use part of the crew’s recreation money to redecorate the commander’s cabin.

Perot also said he believed he had signed an agreement to serve for only two years when he entered the Naval Academy, a commitment that was raised to four years with the onset of the Korean War. Perot also said through his aides that it had become clear to him that he was not going to move up the ladder in a hurry because of the military system.

“At the time he was in the Navy, promotions were based solely on seniority or ‘time in grade,’ ” the statement said. “Perot wanted to work in an environment that promoted people based on merit and contribution.”

Perot later “reconsidered” his request to resign. In a letter to Daniel dated Feb. 17, 1956, Navy Capt. P. F. Hauch wrote that as a result of a personal interview with the chief of naval personnel, Lt. (j.g.) Perot “reconsidered his request to resign. He is currently serving in a new duty station, (the aircraft carrier) USS Leyte, and has resolved to complete his obligated service in the same exemplary fashion which has characterized all of his active service.”

Perot was honorably discharged in 1957.