Vice Adm. Paul D. Stroop; Once Commanded the Pacific Fleet

Vice Adm. Paul D. Stroop, 90, the retired Navy vice admiral who commanded the Pacific Fleet for three years during the 1960s. Stroop, a 39-year Navy veteran, retired from the Navy in 1965 and worked until three years ago as a consultant to Ryan Aeronautical and Teledyne of San Diego. Stroop was chief of the Bureau of Weapons in Washington when he was selected in 1962 for promotion to vice admiral and assigned as commander of the Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet at North Island. “We would try to accomplish very complicated military assignments,” said his former aide Ed McKellar, now executive director of the San Diego Aerospace Museum. “And if, for whatever reason, that was not to be, Adm. Stroop always had a sensible fallback position,” In San Diego on Wednesday.