Nominee for Secretary of Air Force Hits Turbulence

The Clinton administration’s first black nominee for secretary of the Air Force continued to come under fire Thursday on Capitol Hill as former colleagues and senators assailed his flying record and his truthfulness.

Daryl Jones, a Florida state senator and former fighter pilot, has struggled for eight months to put to rest allegations about such matters. But at a lengthy hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jones came under new attack and he was left trying to explain apparent inconsistencies in previous testimony.

Among other questions, Jones was asked to explain discrepancies in what he had said about the number of hours he flew as a fighter pilot and his reasons for giving up military flying. He was pressed to explain why he had collected flight pay for 3 1/2 years after he stopped flying and had not notified the Air Force of the mistake.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a former Navy flier, questioned Jones about receiving that pay.

Jones said that he had been led to believe by “some people” that the added pay “would go on for four or five years. . . . I’m more than happy to pay it back.” The extra pay totaled more than $1,700.

Jones’ critics said that the specifics of most questions were less important than what they reflected about the truthfulness of the candidate for such a senior position.

“There are a lot of discrepancies,” said Sen. Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, one of a number of Republicans who seemed to be leaning against the nomination. In the secretary’s job, she added, “a person has to provide leadership to the service.”

Jones, whose candidacy has become a passionate cause for the Congressional Black Caucus, acknowledged that poor memory may have caused some answers to be inaccurate. But he insisted that he is worthy of the office.

“Just because I have a different recollection of an event doesn’t mean I don’t have integrity,” Jones, 42, insisted near the end of his testimony.

Some former Air Force colleagues and other acquaintances also rallied to his defense, describing Jones as a hard-working and public-spirited family man.

The administration has prided itself on its success in breaking new ground with the appointment of women and minorities to top jobs in the military services. The administration made Togo West Jr. the first black secretary of the Army. When West departed to become head of the Veterans Administration, the White House recently secured easy confirmation for Louis Caldera, a former California legislator from Los Angeles, to be the first Latino to fill the Army job. And the administration made Sheila Widnall, an MIT professor, the first woman to serve as secretary of the Air Force.

But Senate staff members predicted that the committee vote on Jones’ nomination is likely to be a squeaker when it comes up for vote early next week. “This is going to be very, very close,” said one Senate aide.

Thursday’s hearing was told that Jones had faced racial animosity in his Air Force Reserve unit after he had been admitted quickly to an elite F-16 unit by officials eager to name a minority as a pilot. Jones had applied for the Air Force Reserve after leaving active duty status.

Jones had testified earlier that he gave up his reserve position flying F-16s voluntarily, based on his recognition that he could not maintain his busy life as a legislator and lawyer and fly enough to maintain his skills as a pilot.

“After much introspection and several discussions with my commander, I decided to stop flying and instead to serve my country in a different role,” Jones testified in June.

But former Air Force colleagues testified that, after years of poor flying performance, Jones had been told that he had to take a less-prestigious position on the ground or try to defend his performance before an Air Force flight evaluation board.

Col. Thomas Dyches--now detachment commander of the U.S. Air Force Reserve at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., and Jones’ former commander--said that Jones had been unable to decide what to do about his poor flying until “I had to make [the decision] for him.”

Yet Jones insisted that he had been truthful because he had believed that Dyches had left him with the choice of taking the administrative position or fighting his case before the board.

Dyches said that in his view Jones is not qualified to be secretary of the Air Force.

“I believe there are serious questions about Daryl Jones’ personal integrity,” he testified. “I believe that service-before-self is a fundamental disconnect in Daryl’s life. His life, in my opinion, is governed by his personal goals.”

Jones also was called to account for telling the committee in June that he had flown 5,000 hours as a fighter pilot, when records showed a number of about 1,100 hours. Senators and Air Force officers debated at Thursday’s hearing whether a pilot would make such a sizable error on a statistic that most fliers watch closely.

“We don’t always keep up with our hours,” Jones insisted.

Earlier, Jones had been criticized for writing on a recent resume that he was on active flying status, though he had stopped flying in January 1992. Jones said he had simply erred in not changing an old resume when he ceased flying for the reserve.

Jones’ defenders included the Rev. Walter Richardson of the Second Baptist Church of Miami, who said that he was shocked by the attacks.

“It’s almost like we’re talking about two different people,” said Richardson.

Jones also has been accused of asking subordinates in the reserves to buy Amway household products from him, which violates Air Force regulations. Jones has said that he did not pitch the products “knowingly,” though he may have done so to groups that might have included some subordinates.