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William J. Crowe Jr.
 Former
Chairman of Joint Chiefs Adm. William Crowe dies at age 82
WASHINGTON (AP) - A former Oklahoman who became chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff and an ambassador to Great Britain has
died.
William Crowe, the Navy admiral who held the nation's top
military job as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as the
Cold War neared its end and who in retirement publicly
criticized military and presidential decisions, died of cardiac
arrest Thursday at Bethesda Naval Medical Center. He was 82.
Born in LaGrange, Ky., and reared in Oklahoma where
he attended Classen High School, he chose an unorthodox career
path. His father was a lawyer. After a year at the University of Oklahoma, he headed to
the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1946. At a hulking
6-foot-2, and with an Oklahoma drawl, Ambassador Crowe was noted
for bringing humor to diplomatic encounters.
He also earned master's degrees from Stanford and Princeton. In addition to his degree from the naval
academy, he had a masters in personnel administration from
Stanford University and a masters and doctorate in politics from
Princeton University.
He was among 27 retired diplomats and military commanders who
publicly said the Bush administration did not understand the
world and was unable to handle "in either style or
substance" the responsibilities of global leadership.
Crowe was named chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by
President Reagan in 1985 and retired from the military in 1989
but in 1994 President Clinton appointed him ambassador to the
Court of St. James and he served until 1997.
In the early 1960s, Crowe turned down a chance for assignment
to nuclear submarines to study for a doctorate in politics and
international affairs at Princeton. Angered by Crowe's decision,
Adm. Hyman Rickover, the autocratic head of the nuclear Navy,
turned against him.
For his part, Crowe said the studies transformed him.
"As I studied political science at Princeton, I began to
learn that things aren't black and white, they're usually
gray," he said later.
Back in uniform, he angered a Pentagon superior by suggesting
a policy change. "He called me in and said, `We didn't send
you to graduate school to come back here with a lot of ideas on
how to run the Navy. What we sent you to graduate school for is
to come back here and help us perfect and articulate what we
want better. But we're not interested in your original
thinking.'"
President Reagan named him the 11th chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff in 1985. The year before, Reagan had stopped in
Hawaii en route to China for a briefing from Crowe on the
military situation in the Far East. As Crowe spoke for 90
minutes without notes, charts or maps.
At age 44, he volunteered for duty in Vietnam.
He is survived by his wife, Shirley, his daughter, Bambi, and
his sons, Brent and Blake.
Cited Works
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j_HL9pZzoOKFNC2HHTDnpdV5N9bw
http://www.kswo.com/Global/story.asp?S=7232767
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003964990_croweobit21.html
Complied and transcribed by Marti Graham, 2009.
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