Pentagon Aide Expected to Get Nomination as Navy Secretary

Sean O’Keefe, the Pentagon’s comptroller and close associate of Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, is expected to be nominated as the next secretary of the Navy as the service seeks to recover from a sexual-abuse scandal, Pentagon and congressional sources said Monday.

The sources said the selection of O’Keefe, 36, to head the Navy would be announced today. The nomination must be approved by the full Senate.

O’Keefe would succeed H. Lawrence Garrett III, who resigned on June 26, saying that a leadership failure had led to an incident last September in which 26 women allegedly were assaulted by naval aviators at a Las Vegas convention.

There had been speculation that a woman might be tapped to become Navy secretary--the top civilian leader of the Navy and Marine Corps. Published reports mentioned as possibilities Barbara S. Pope, the assistant Navy secretary for manpower and reserve affairs, and Rep. Beverly B. Byron (D-Md.), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was clear that Cheney, in his recommendation of O’Keefe, who is regarded as a strong manager, wanted to assert stronger civilian authority in the Navy.

O’Keefe is a former staff director of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on defense.