NORFOLK
Adm. William J. “Fox” Fallon made his career on a quick mind, immersion in details and a network of personal connections built like a beat cop and kept like a priest.
His four-star appointments placed him in parts of the world where friendship to the United States is in short supply and dwindling. Last year, he became commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East. True to form, he met the people, he listened and learned.
He spoke bluntly about the challenges. It may have cost him his job.
A lengthy Esquire magazine profile last month painted Fallon, 63, as the lone figure holding back a United States attack on Iran. The story pitted Fallon against the White House.
Within days, Fallon declared that the piece caused “a distraction at a critical time” and retired a year early from his post at Central Command.
In the first interview since the story was published, Fallon said he was surprised and felt used as a tool to attack President Bush.
“It was certainly not my intention,” he said, adding, “It was an embarrassment to me, as well.”
He encourages robust policy discussions, he said, but as a natural way of vetting ideas and shaping decisions. “As a commander, I want to listen to different views ,” he said, “If everybody is singing the same song, the same key, the same cadence, I start to wonder what’s going on here.”
Fallon was slated to retire today in Norfolk in a ceremony aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt.
His departure hampers efforts to stabilize the Middle East, said retired Rear Adm. Fred Lewis, a longtime friend and mentor. “We’ve lost the greatest strategic thinker we have,” Lewis said. “That’s a real tragedy.”
The story might be why he didn’t walk away from the Navy several times before today.
Fallon grew up the oldest of nine children in an Irish Catholic family in South Jersey.
Both parents served in the military during World War II, but neither considered it a career.
Fallon attended Villanova University on a Navy scholarship. At the time, he didn’t believe the service would become his life.
Aboard the aircraft carrier America on a midshipman cruise, Fallon closely watched the flight operations, then asked for a ride in the back seat of the sleek RA-5C Vigilante.
It was cheeky for a college student to ask to occupy the second spot in a two-seat bomber designed to drop nuclear weapons and fly twice the speed of sound.
Fallon got his ride. “I thought, 'This is pretty cool,’” he said.
He would fly in the same squadron as a navigator and bomber on reconnaissance missions over Vietnam in 1969 and 1970.
He received the call sign “Fox.”
As opposition to the war grew, sailors’ spirits sagged, and his A-5 squadron’s low, fast missions over the North Vietnamese territory seemed pointless.
The squadron lost several aviators. “We were being used as bait,” he said.
Fallon felt other pulls. Tufts University accepted him into its rigorous international studies program. “I had every intention of getting out,” he said.
But a dispute between the military and the university over anti-Vietnam war protests ended Fallon’s plans. Nearly 40 years later, as commander of the Pacific Fleet, he accepted an invitation to Vietnam. Near the end of the flight aboard a Navy C-40, Fallon grew restless, climbed in the cockpit jump seat and watched the Red River spool out 10,000 feet below.
He had flown the exact route during his final mission over North Vietnam.
On the ground, he chatted with Vietnamese military and civilian officials, including a former pilot who chased and shot U.S. Navy fighters in the 1960s.
“We had a great conversation,” Fallon said and chuckled. “They also wanted to have a different world. You know, the past is the past, so let’s get on with it.”
By that point, Fallon had served around the world in various posts. He commanded a carrier air wing during the Persian Gulf War. He led a carrier group and then commanded the 2nd Fleet from Norfolk Naval Station.
He and his wife, Mary, made a home in Hampton Roads with their son and three daughters.
They belonged to Star of the Sea Catholic Church in Virginia Beach, while the children attended parochial and public schools.
Adm. Vern Clark, then the chief of naval operations, brought him to Washington to serve as his vice chief. Clark valued Fallon’s ability to cut through difficult problems while maintaining personal relations in tight, Washington, D.C., circles.
“He was tough,” Clarke said. “Always challenging people intellectually.”
Adm. Gary Roughead, current chief of naval operations, served under Fallon at the Pacific Command. “A gentleman of the highest order,” he said, yet “he didn’t like a lot of fluff and BS.”
Fallon served as the country’s emissary in February 2001 to apologize to Japanese families who lost relatives when the Navy submarine Greeneville accidentally sunk a fishing ship.
The connections and vast experience pulling the levers of diplomacy and war made him uniquely qualified to lead Central Command.
The responsibilities include not just Iraq and Afghanistan but the complete range of challenges in the Middle East – Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf states, and former Soviet Republics.
Fallon could have simply retired instead, with pay and benefits.
Jack Sheehan, a retired Marine Corps general and NATO commander, was offered the position of war czar by the White House a year ago. Sheehan said he seriously considered taking the position to give Fallon an ally in Washington.
He ultimately turned it down. “I called him up one day and said 'Fox, this is not going to work. As long as we have these crazy neocons there, we’ll never get anywhere.’”
Fallon focused on the larger questions about the war’s impact on relations in the Middle East. He averaged five days a week away from the Tampa, Fla., headquarters of Central Command.
“We’ve got to rebuild relationships,” Fallon said. “You can’t solve Iraq without working around the region.”
Sheehan credits Fallon for making strides.
“He did a tremendous amount of work visiting the Gulf states,” Sheehan said. “One of the big things that’s a real criticism of this administration – they don’t talk to anybody.”
The Fallons have not decided the course of their retirement. The family has a home in Montana, where the perpetually engaged Fallon can relax with fly fishing.
He recently learned to surf. “At 60!” his daughter, Susan, revealed with a laugh.
The man whose career at times traveled faster than the speed of sound spent 10 days on the road from Florida to northern Virginia.
It took time, he said, to stop and visit friends.
Louis Hansen, (757) 446-2322, louis.hansen@pilotonline.com
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Fallon as Commander
I served on the Admiral's staff at CENTCOM for a few months after he took command last year. He was a marginal commander at best. The nation is just lucky Fallon retired before he did any real harm.
President Obama ??
What an insult that would be to this country and to the racist Rev. Wright to swear Obama in as president Hillary is not much better
63Impala
We're on the same page, Mate!
Secretary of Defense?
I think that Admiral Fallon would make a great Secretary of Defense in the 2009 Cabinet of President Barack Obama.
He has proven himself time and time again to be an excellent military leader, and the type of man that we need to help in our future efforts to keep the peace.....or wage war....if absolutely necessary.
And, unlike our current situation, the Fox would definitely be heard!
Adm Fallon Knew What He Was Doing
Having dealt with numerous Lcdrs, Cdrs, and Capts in my career, I believe Adm Fallon knew exactly what he was doing and now is trying to give himslef an "out" by blaming the magazine. Do you really think this guy got duped by a couple of journalists? He's been at this for too long for that to happen.
If so, maybe it WAS time for him to go.
jpjones;cs
Please don't misconstru my post. I agree 100% with you. In the positions I held, I was lucky enough to have superiors that asked for my input in order to make valid & informed decisions. They didn't always agree with what I had to offer, but it was my duty to present it, differing or not, & then carry out the orders given to me based on the decision THEY made, with a hearty "Aye-Aye, sir!" You are correct when you say that FOX should have known better to make public the views that should have been voiced in private (and probably were, thus his frustration). For all of his intelligence and faithful service, it seemed a bit odd that he would do so. But all in all, this administration should have listed better and taken what the admiral had to offer with more concern. I still hold that these are sad times when those of the admirals calibre are ignored. Just sorry to see his career end that way, but then again, maybe it was inevitable, given the current state of affairs. Iraq & the MidEast have become more like Vietnam than many realize, IMHO.
--Shaped My Career---
I am a current 19 year Naval Officer who served under ADM Fallon as an enlisted and as an Officer. He was an incredible influence on my career..I wouldn't be where I am today if he hadn't seen something in me.
it's called an oath of office
As an Army senior NCO (equivalent of a Navy Chief), I agree whole heartedly with JPJONES. When one serves the nation in the military he takes an oath, part of which includes something about supporting and defending the Constitution of the United States, if I recall correctly. Enshrined in this document is civilian control of the military. For those who believe Admiral Fallon was right in presenting dissenting opinions, you are correct to a point. Such candor is important behind closed doors. Where Admiral Fallon went awry was when he let his views be known publicly. The same thing happened when General Clark was relieved of his NATO command under Clinton. My job requires me to give honest counsel to my superiors, but if they disagree with my opinion I must then carry out their orders to the best of my ability. I do NOT then go grumbling to my soldiers. Those who think Admiral Fallon did the right thing ask yourselves this: What would Admiral Fallon have done if one of his subordinates had disagreed with him and then aired his grievance in the national media? I suspect he would have been less than pleased.
Jamie
I don't think that's true. As I said, when asked for your advice and opinions, you should give them. If your input isn't accepted, you should not grumble, grouse, and complain, because, ultimately, the civilian leadership is responsible and accountable to the American people for military matters. The President and the Secretary of Defense have been, and are being, held responsible for every aspect of the Iraq War from Abu Ghrab to Guantanamo, etc. While some subordinates were held accountable for their direct roles in some of these incidents, I think the American people understand that the buck certainly didn't stop there.
Another set of stars in Bush's skeleton closet...
Admirals and Generals, if you're asked for advice but give advice he don't want to hear, your stars will be next!
The Admiral knew better
I'm a Naval Academy graduate who spent nine years in the Navy during the Vietnam era, and anyone with Admiral Fallon's brainpower and experience knows better than to air his differences with his superiors in a national news medium. Besides their military training, senior officers are well versed and briefed by the Navy Public Affairs Office in how to handle themselves for such articles. For him to say that he was surprised that a magazine with known liberal bias would use his interview as a hammer to attack the President's policies is absolute nonsense. I agree with the previous reader that he has done the honorable thing by retiring, but he should have done so before he let the horse out of the barn.
63Impala
I, too, am a 29-year retired naval officer who served under Admiral Fallon. I didn't always agree with the orders from on high from the Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations. I provided my best advice and voiced my opinion (once). If my input wasn't accepted, I swallowed hard, saluted, and carried out the orders I was given.
JP
While I agree with your comments that "like it or not, the military is run by the civilians", as a 27 year retired Naval Officer, I have to comment that the visions of ADM Fallon and GEN Sheehan are exactly the thing that is need to see all sides of the problems with the policies of the current administration. Having served under "Fox" Fallon, I can attest to his forthright, passionate, and critical views of the right ways to approach solving difficult problems. There are many lessons to be learned from making sure that all inputs are reviewed and considered before making diffcult choices, and discounting some simply because they are in contrast to your own, is shot-sighted. Unfortunately the curernt administration failed to learn for the very best leaders our military had to offer-something that is more common thatn it should be and tends to repeat itself in history over time (re: Vietnam). "Fox" Fallon is an honorable man who unfortunately has been forced to make a decision that is not in the country's best interest. Sad Times.......
When should protocol supercede common sense
To chastise Admiral Fallon here for not sucking it up and going gently into that good night is small-minded. He is exactly correct, this administration doesn't talk to anyone, they just bully them. We have never had such poor relations overseas then these past 8 years. It's arrogance, ignorance and stubborness that have gotten us into this mess in the Middle East and a little truth is needed if we're ever going to get out. It took how many years for families to finally get angry over their losses of sons, daughters, husbands, wives, sisters and brothers in a war that never should have been fought. We should demand more of our elected leaders to provide full accountability before committing lives and funds into personal vendettas. Sure Saddam was a monster, he was NOT responsible for 911. Thank you, Admiral Fallon for giving it your best effort.
ps
While it is unquestionably General Sheehan's right to do so, it is ungentlemanly and bad form to use the occasion of Admiral Fallon's retirement as a forum to air his personal gripes because things didn't go "his way."
Like it or not,
our Constitution puts control of the military in the hands of civilians. Whether it be the "crazy neocons" General Sheehan despised or the pacifist policies of former President Carter, the moment an admiral or general realizes he isn't going have it "his way," rather than pout and be an impediment, he needs to pick up his marbles and go home. That is the honorable path Admiral Fallon has chosen.