Clinton’s Visit Aboard Aircraft Carrier Makes a Few Waves With Crew : Military: President praises armed forces as ‘shining model.’ But with cutbacks and gay rights on their minds, some sailors get in their digs.

President Clinton toured this aircraft carrier with praise and promises, but his first official trip onto military turf Friday also underscored his differences with the uniformed ranks.

Clinton told the crew of the nuclear-powered vessel in a three-hour stopover that the armed forces are “the shining model of our best values.” Speaking on the same day the Pentagon was announcing proposed base closings, he vowed that his cutback plans would not “leave the men and women who helped win the Cold War out in the cold.”

And in a 15-minute address in the ship’s cavernous hangar deck, he told several hundred of the ship’s 5,500 sailors and Marines that he knew of “no greater honor” than his role as commander in chief. The declared purpose of the visit was to show support for the crew as it leaves Norfolk for a six-month tour in the Mediterranean.

Clinton made no direct reference in his comments to his proposal to lift the ban on homosexuals in the military, an idea that has angered many in the armed forces. But, in words that seemed designed to exhort them to adjust to social change, he recalled how the military services had racially integrated their ranks and offered opportunities to women and minorities.

The services “stand as one of modern history’s great successes,” he said. “Every color, every background, every region in our society is represented. . . . It’s constantly adapted to change, and always rising to the challenge of change.”

The White House had designed the outing to be a carefully controlled first foray into hostile territory, one that would provide favorable TV footage and perhaps offset the unhappy news about Defense Secretary Les Aspin’s base closing proposals.

But as the President, wearing a slightly undersized Navy flight jacket, toured this $2.5-billion technological marvel, crew members nearby freely shared opinions that seemed to range from skeptical to politely cool to downright unfriendly. They cited his absence of a military record, their uncertainties about his intentions, and, most of all, his plan to lift the ban on gays in the service.

Navy SEAL Rick Hyser had slipped on a desert sniper’s camouflage outfit to show the President the adaptable gear his group can use in a variety of settings. But the VIPs had no sooner passed than Hyser acknowledged that he believes Clinton “is not strongly pro-military.”

He asserted that while Clinton had campaigned on an economic message, “the first thing he did in office was to cave in to a special interest” on the issue of homosexual rights. “I haven’t met anybody here who’s for it.”

When a television crew from Cable News Network pounced on Marine Lance Cpl. Calvin Walker, 20, to ask his view of Clinton’s visit, Walker first answered, “I think it’s OK.”

But a friend, Lance Cpl. Stewart Baker, who had been listening to Walker’s running commentary on Clinton’s visit, would not allow that to sit.

“No, you don’t,” Baker interjected, as the television crew struggled to continue the interview. “Liar. Liar.”

Baker, 22, volunteered his own opinion that “this is more of a show than anything.” And he asserted that the rule change regarding gays “was really going to hurt morale.”

Mario Espinoza, a sailor from El Monte only six months out of Arroyo High School, said he was dazzled by the President’s presence. “I’ve never seen a President; this is a great experience.” But Espinoza said that despite his best wishes for the President, he wondered whether Clinton’s lack of experience wouldn’t be a handicap.

“I wonder how well he’s going to handle all of this,” he said, observing that people in the Navy “are going to be comparing him to President Bush.”

Again and again, sailors complained that allowing homosexuals on their carrier would compromise their privacy. In some units, 45 sailors share bunks in a space roughly 15 feet by 20 feet, although, because of varying shifts, all the sailors do not use the space at once.

Clinton, flown in by helicopter, ate a lunch of chicken, peas and cottage cheese in the enlisted men’s galley. Aides kept reporters at a distance during the President’s informal exchanges with crew members, perhaps hoping to avoid any embarrassing exchanges.

Asked at one point if the visit was timed as a counterpoint to the bad news on base closings, Clinton responded: “I think I need to be here because I’m the commander in chief.”

Accompanied by Aspin, Sens. John W. Warner (R-Va.) and Charles S. Robb (D-Va.), Clinton toured the hangar deck to look over an F-14 Tomcat, an FA-18 Hornet and an A-6 Intruder aircraft, and to inspect a group of Navy SEALS and their weaponry.

Then he climbed to the bridge of the 1,100-foot carrier to watch as fighter jets were catapulted from the deck. The President sat in the upholstered chair of Capt. Stanley W. Bryant and sipped on a soda.

Clinton used the visit to again make a pitch for his plan for defense conversion, which calls for the government to spend about $20 billion over the next five years.

The country “can’t repeal the laws of change,” he said. But he said the federal government could do more for military people who have been mustered out of the services, civilians who have lost their jobs, and the companies and communities that have been hurt by cuts.

“I want to help ensure that those of you who choose to leave the military in the years to come return to a nation of jobs and growth and opportunity,” he said.