Joint Chief Candidate Decides to Retire Instead

Gen. John J. Sheehan, the iconoclastic Marine who had been considered a candidate to become the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has given notice he will retire from the service on Oct. 1, officials said.

Sheehan’s decision is another sign of Defense Secretary William S. Cohen’s determination to move cautiously in filling the chairman’s post after the controversy that recently enveloped another candidate, Air Force Gen. Joseph W. Ralston.

Ralston, currently the Joint Chiefs vice chairman, had been viewed as Cohen’s likely choice for the top post until it was learned the general had engaged in an adulterous affair in the mid-1980s while separated from his then-wife. Ralston removed himself from consideration for the chairman’s job amid complaints that if he did not, it would raise questions of a double standard for sex violations in the military.

Senior officers say Cohen now appears keen to avoid any furor in choosing the next chairman. And Sheehan would have been a contentious choice--he has picked fights with rival services and Pentagon administrators, and even tangled on occasion with fellow Marine senior officers.

Sheehan, 56, holds one of the most powerful jobs in the military, acting as the head of the Atlantic Command, based in Norfolk, Va. In that post, he has authority to mobilize 1.2 million U.S. troops based in the continental United States.

Sheehan’s candidacy won the support of a number of military reformers, who believed he would be unafraid to shake up the Pentagon and reshape the armed forces.

A decorated 35-year veteran, Sheehan has no plans after he retires “other than to . . . enjoy life,” a spokesman said.