Joint Chiefs Pick Is at Home in Battles Real or Diplomatic

When Gen. Richard B. Myers became vice chairman of the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff last year, the border war between the tiny former-Soviet countries of Armenia and Azerbaijan was not exactly on the top of his agenda.

But a few months later, by the time the soft-spoken former fighter pilot found himself assigned to a weeklong trip to the two nations, he could talk the ins and outs of the dispute like a Caucasus expert.

“He was a very quick study on the issues but very careful about not being taken in by one side or the other,” recalled Walter Slocombe, then undersecretary of Defense for policy, who was along when the general decided to visit both an Azerbaijani military cemetery and an Armenian memorial. “He managed, without in any way compromising the position of the U.S. government, to pay respect to the horror of what was happening to the people of the region.”

Myers, Pentagon officials say, will be tapped today by President Bush to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chief executive’s top uniformed advisor on military matters and the leader of the armed forces. He is by all accounts an expert at the sort of diplomacy that wins friends in far-off corners of the world and obscure corners of the Pentagon.

A fighter pilot in Vietnam who rose quickly through the ranks to head the Air Force’s Space Command, the 6-foot-4 Myers has a reputation as a “gentle giant” who believes fervently in such futuristic military technologies as missile defenses and space weaponry. He also has been a leading advocate of radical changes in the way the military organizes itself and buys its weapons, without alienating advocates who emphasize conventional forces and ways of fighting.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld will need the best diplomat he can get in what promises to be a tough fight on Capitol Hill for his plan to increase funding for a national missile defense program by 57% and a battle within the Pentagon over reshaping the military.

“The new chair is going to be Rumsfeld’s wing man when he goes before Congress,” said Andrew Krepinevich, director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “He wants somebody who knows what the secretary wants, and believes in it, and who works well with all constituencies.”

If, as expected, Myers is named today to serve as the nation’s top military officer, he would assume leadership at a tense time and confront a formidable array of challenges. Many Pentagon officials and others in the armed forces are bitter over Rumsfeld’s managerial style, which some have called heavy-handed.

In addition to the chairman, the joint chiefs include a vice chairman, the chiefs of the staff of the Army, Air Force and Naval Operations, and the commandant of the Marine Corps, all of whom are military advisors.

As chairman, Myers would not command combat forces. But he would have the difficult job of instituting the administration’s envisioned reform and modernization of the military, a task that could require troop reductions and other cutbacks to make way for a new generation of weapons.

It’s a long way from Kansas City, Mo., where Myers grew up the son of a hardware store owner and lettered in high school football and track. As a small boy, he was so frightened after he witnessed the crash of a military training plane that his parents, on the advice of his pediatrician, took him to airports for months to help him conquer his fear of flying.

The treatment must have worked. Myers, who entered the Air Force in 1965 through the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Kansas State University, flew more than 600 combat hours in Vietnam. He has flown more than 4,000 hours in his career.

On the ground, Myers developed a reputation as quiet, studious and meticulously well-prepared--but not averse to thinking unconventionally to solve problems. Air Force Gen. Howell Estes recalled that Myers as a young officer noticed that a blue carpet to be used for a ceremony was badly stained and spray-painted it the same hue.

These days, he rides a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, plays the saxophone and spends time restoring his Triumph TR-6 Roadster. In the Pentagon, he is often seen standing in line at the commissary for coffee. Most generals of his rank have theirs brought to them, one military official said.

“Myers transcends the traditional notion of a fighter pilot as combative and hard to get along with,” said one senior Pentagon official who has known Myers since his days commanding a fighter wing. “He retains a warrior ethos, but he combines it with a lot of political savvy.”

Myers, 59, has logged considerable time in the long halls of the Pentagon and near the top of the military hierarchy honing that savvy. He has been vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs since February 2000, working with Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz in formulating the Quadrennial Defense Review, a sweeping reassessment of the nation’s armed forces.

Earlier, he headed the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the U.S. Space Command, overseeing the development of space and intercontinental ballistic missile operations. From July 1996 to July 1997, he was assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, charged with accompanying Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on foreign trips to advise her. Myers was the chief Air Force commander in Hawaii and Japan.

An engineer by training, Myers “has been involved with high-technology throughout his career,” said Philip Coyle, a former director of operational testing and evaluation for the Pentagon who has worked closely with Myers. “He is a gentle giant who . . . understands the limitations of technology and the practical realities of battle. He will support missile defense but will be realistic about what can be accomplished in likely operational situations.”

But though Myers is well liked, he has not always been known as exceptional, say some Pentagon observers. He now heads a joint requirements oversight council that is charged with convincing the services to work together to procure equipment that can be used jointly, while promoting competition between services to cut waste.

“So far, it has been a big disappointment,” Krepinevich said. “It has not done anything. . . . Gen. Myers has used it to more or less ratify what the service intended to do instead of encouraging them to make difficult choices.”

And Myers’ amiability won’t prevent conflicts looming in the Pentagon over budgets and doctrine. With Myers solidly in the camp of those who argue the primacy of developing space-based intelligence and missile defense technologies, the battle is shaping against military leaders who fear that such a focus will drain money from the traditional mission of the military.

“If they really want to transform the military, they need a military guy who’s compatible with their views,” said Lawrence J. Korb, a former assistant secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration. “It’s sort of like picking a Supreme Court justice. You want a guy who’s leaning your way.”