Adm. Johnson: A Top Gun Seen Destined for Top Job

When local graduates of the Navy’s elite Top Gun combat fighter school landed back at their home base near Norfolk, Va., one Saturday evening in 1982, they were startled to see a lone gray Navy pickup racing onto the Tarmac to meet them.

Fearing an emergency, they braced for the worst. Instead, out popped a grinning, impeccably dressed young officer with a truck full of cold drinks, ready to toast their success. It was their squadron commander, then-Cmdr. Jay L. Johnson, welcoming his men home.

That sort of gesture may seem like grandstanding to some civilians, but in a morale-conscious organization like the Navy, insiders say it often can mean the difference between a run-of-the-mill skipper and a leader.

Now a four-star admiral, Johnson--who was named by President Clinton on Wednesday to replace the late Adm. Jeremy Michael Boorda as chief of naval operations--has amassed a career filled with such examples that many of his shipmates vow never to forget.

“You knew right at the beginning that he was going to have a very promising career,” said retired Rear Adm. George A. Aitcheson, who was Johnson’s commanding officer in 1970 when the young Annapolis graduate made his first deployment with a fighter squadron.

Retired Adm. Paul David Miller, who headed the U.S. Atlantic Command when Johnson held his last major combat job--commander of the Second Fleet--before becoming vice chief of naval operations earlier this year, agrees.

“Jay’s a keen observer, and he never passes up the opportunity to learn,” Miller said.

Johnson, who turned 50 on Wednesday, has been something of an unknown quantity to much of official Washington during his brief stint as Boorda’s deputy.

A native of West Salem, Wis., Johnson graduated from the Naval Academy in 1968. He flew two tours in Vietnam as an A-8 Crusader pilot. He later switched to F-14 Tomcats. He was instrumental in planning the U.S. raid on Libya in 1986 and the American military action in Haiti in 1994, where he was commander of the Second Fleet. And he has commanded flight operations over Bosnia and southern Iraq.

At the Pentagon, he has been steeped in many of the Navy’s thorniest personnel issues, including assigning women to duty on combat ships.

Insiders say perhaps his two biggest shortcomings are apt to be his lack of Washington experience and his relative youth. In choosing him, Clinton reached down to the most junior of his four-star admirals. Johnson was just promoted to that rank last March.

The admiral had his first brush with Congress on Wednesday when the Senate Armed Services Committee questioned Pentagon policies that allow Johnson to serve as a $30,000-a-year director of the United Services Automobile Assn.--an insurance firm catering to military personnel.

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Later, Johnson announced that he was resigning from USAA’s board, as well as the boards of two affiliated companies.

“I would not want it to remain an issue of concern for the Armed Services Committee in connection with my nomination to become chief of naval operations,” Johnson said.

In a statement released by his office, Johnson said his service on USAA’s board had been “appropriately reported” on financial disclosure forms and cleared by Navy and Defense Department ethics counselors. He said his work for USAA was all done only while on leave from his military duties.

The developments did not appear to affect Johnson’s standing at the White House. Aides said the Navy has known about his position for years and had cleared him of any conflicts. “We were not blindsided by this,” one White House aide said.