Profile : U.S. Point Man in Somalia Is a Marine’s Marine : Robert B. Johnston is a no-nonsense three-star general. However, he also has proven to be a consummate diplomat.

When a military crew arrived last month to broadcast news, football games and music to the 25,000 American troops in Somalia, Lt. Gen. Robert B. Johnston promptly sent them packing, setting off a series of groans that could be heard into the countryside.

But Johnston, the commander of Operation Restore Hope, was resolute.

He thought that, at $1 million, the broadcasting operation was too expensive and that it would eat up valuable cargo space on incoming planes. And, in his heart, he felt it simply was inconsistent with the mission.

“It’s pretty hard for the troops to accept, maybe,” Johnston admitted in an interview. “But we’re here on a humanitarian mission--to feed starving Somalis. And they have nothing. They don’t have pens and papers for schools. They have no clothes for the most part.

“And to bring in all the trappings of home seemed paradoxical. It’s almost like we can’t do without all the comforts of home because we’re Americans.”

The unpopular decision, and the rationale for it, says much about the Scottish-born Marine leading American forces on the largest and most dangerous humanitarian mission in their history.

He’s a no-nonsense three-star general--make no mistake. A lean, muscular and tanned 55-year-old, he’s a sports buff, runs daily and, as recently as 18 months ago, managed a perfect score on the Marine fitness test. He’s also, according to subordinates, a “neatness freak” about everything from the letters on his desk to the crease in his camouflage fatigues.

But he’s also an engaging conversationalist, having earned his undergraduate degree in English at San Diego College (what is now San Diego State), and a consummate diplomat, deeply aware of the sensitive nature of his mission in an African country with no government and a debilitating famine.

“This was Dodge City before we arrived,” Johnston said. “Diplomacy had clearly failed. And it was a mission that required a military solution. Now we know we can take a conventionally trained military and put them in a humanitarian mission.

“I’ve seen a lot of awful places, but this takes the cake,” he added. “And to see our Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen handle the discomfort and hardship like it was not a big deal has just reinforced our expectations that they’d do well.”

So far, the U.S.-led forces have escorted food for 60 million meals in Somalia. And 3,000 Army engineers are resurfacing 1,200 miles of roadway, building a bridge, repairing water wells and building base camps for the international peacekeeping force that will remain behind when the United Nations appoints a general to take over from Johnston and the Americans.

And it has been Johnston, with the help of special U.S. envoy Robert B. Oakley, who has accomplished the delicate task of disarming much of the country without showing favoritism to any of the factions here. That evenhanded approach, more than anything else, has endeared the U.S. troops here to Somalis, many of whom harbor ill will toward some of the other foreign forces now on their soil.

“He’s done an amazing job, carrying out his difficult mission without angering any of the clans here,” a U.S. diplomat said.

The main problem area remains Mogadishu, the capital, as Johnston is the first to admit. The large battlewagons and tens of thousands of guns have disappeared from the streets. But armed robberies have increased, and troops have been subjected to sniper fire almost daily, resulting in the death of one Marine and the wounding of three other military personnel.

“We all feel vulnerable out here,” Johnston said. “Any gangster could take us out at any time. But we knew when we came in that this might not be a benign environment.”

Johnston was born in Edinburgh and came to the United States when he was 18, settling in San Diego. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant six years later, serving two tours in Vietnam and a yearlong stint with the U.S. Military Advisory Group in Korea.

The bespectacled father of two adult sons--one of them a Marine captain--Johnston was chief of staff to Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and currently he is commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton.

Johnston’s frankness and personal sense of discipline have made him one of the more popular generals in the Marine Corps.

“He’s very approachable,” says a colonel who deals with Johnston daily. And although “he can cut through you like a knife,” the colonel added, “I’ve never heard him raise his voice. (And) no one here is ever left wondering how the general feels about anything. He tells us.”

Johnston was serving as grand marshal for a parade in El Cajon on Nov. 21 when the cellular phone carried by his aide rang with the news that he would be heading Operation Restore Hope in Somalia. He excused himself from the festivities and began planning the operation that, before the return home of the first Marine contingent in mid-January, brought a unified force of more than 25,000 American troops to the East African country.

He was in the air bound for Somalia on Dec. 9 as Marines came ashore in Mogadishu. And he’s been here ever since, overseeing the complex mission from the gutted ambassador’s office in the old U.S. Embassy compound, now the operation’s heavily fortified command post.

He sleeps there, in a cot against the wall, and works at an unfinished oak desk with phones linking him to U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla. A few weeks ago, when throngs of protesters prevented U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali from attending a sumptuous buffet in his honor at the U.N. compound, the secretary general and his contingent spent the afternoon in Johnston’s office, dining on cold MREs--the “meals, ready to eat” that sustain troops in the field.

Looters who managed to strip the old U.S. Embassy of everything from electrical wiring to floor tiles left one thing behind--a drawing on the wall outside the ambassador’s office that shows three Somalis putting ballots in a box. “Through union, there is strength,” the inscription reads in Somali. “Without it, there is death.”

While the embassy has been swept clean, that message has remained intact, on the general’s orders. The only thing he’s added to the wall decor is a “no smoking” sign.

Biography

* Name: Lt. Gen. Robert B. Johnston

* Title: Commander of Operation Restore Hope in Somalia; commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton.

* Age: 55

* Personal: Born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Now resides in San Diego. Married for 31 years, has two grown sons, one of whom is a Marine captain. He and his wife, Sandra, became grandparents last year. A fitness junkie, he runs up to 5 miles daily and, as recently as 18 months ago, managed a perfect score on the Marine fitness test. He is a sports buff and follows football, rugby and soccer.

* Quote: “If this country (Somalia) does unravel again, I don’t know how it will ever pull itself back up again.”