Navy Chief’s Friends Say He Set True Course

Larry Garrett’s resignation Friday as Navy secretary followed a long federal career in which he specialized in government ethics, and thus it came as no surprise to his friends.

“It’s typical of Larry to do the right thing, or at least what he perceived to be the right thing,” said a former colleague who declined use of his name. “He’s a real straight arrow on ethics.”

H. Lawrence Garrett III, 53, served as an associate White House counsel for three years in the Ronald Reagan Administration before becoming the Pentagon’s top lawyer in 1986. He became undersecretary of the Navy a year later and was appointed secretary in April, 1989.

“He took all his responsibilities so seriously,” the friend said. “I know the Tailhook investigation was eating him alive.”

At the White House, Garrett specialized in advising incoming presidential appointees on avoiding conflicts of interest, and when they left government, on what restrictions applied to them in private life. For example, federal law prohibits such appointees from lobbying or contacting their old office-mates on behalf of a client for at least a year, and Garrett advised them they must also avoid any government programs over which they ever had jurisdiction.

Aside from his service as a government lawyer, Garrett, who received his law degree with honors in 1972 from the University of San Diego, also was a decorated Navy pilot during the Vietnam War. He had first enlisted in the Navy in 1961 and qualified as a machinist’s mate aboard submarines before attending flight school and taking a commission as a naval flight officer in 1964. Later he served aboard maritime patrol aircraft during the Vietnam War, rising to the rank of commander.

Fred W. Fielding, a Washington attorney and former White House counsel, called Garrett “one of the most honorable men I’ve ever met.”

“It is tragic that someone who worked so hard for the Navy has been confronted with this sort of incident on his watch,” Fielding said, referring to the Tailhook investigation.

Garrett had been a Navy lawyer helping the federal Office of Government Ethics during the Reagan transition in late 1980 when he caught Fielding’s eye. He was signed on a month later and brought into the White House at the start of the Administration.

Aside from the Tailhook inquiry, Garrett’s name surfaced earlier this month after former Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger was indicted in the Iran-Contra scandal. The indictment mentioned that Garrett, as the Pentagon’s general counsel, had accompanied Weinberger when congressional investigators questioned the Pentagon chief under oath in 1987.

But former colleagues said it was unlikely that Garrett knew about the personal diaries that Weinberger is accused of hiding from investigators or that he took part in any cover-up himself. There is no evidence that prosecutors are pursuing any allegations against Garrett.