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Villanova Rules the Waves
Irene Burgo
 The
sky is the limit when you are a Villanova graduate. Make that the sea.
In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that Villanova now rules the waves.
Just ask alums Admiral William J. Fallon and Admiral Walter F. Doran,
who both graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences in 1967. Doran
and Fallon command the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets, respectively. Ask
them how far a newly commissioned officer of Villanova’s ROTC Program
can go, and based on their experience, they will tell you the possibilities
are limitless.
Both admirals chose to make the Navy their career after being commissioned
through the Villanova ROTC Program upon graduation. On separate paths
in Navy, both have sailed the waves of challenge to success, so to speak.
Admiral Fallon was named as Commander of U.S. Fleet Forces, his official
title, last October. Admiral Doran was appointed to his position as Commander
of the Pacific Fleet in May of 2002. While the responsibilities of the
job keep them oceans apart, their separate duties more often unite them.
As former Villanova classmates, Doran and Fallon were friends long before
their official collaboration. Through the years, they both have maintained
an unwavering love and loyalty for Villanova. Now, through the experience
they’ve gained from the years of service to the nation, the two
admirals are helping to shape the future of the U.S. Navy.
At the Helm of the Atlantic:
Navy Adm. William J. Fallon '67 A&S
Villanova may boast Admiral William J. Fallon as its native son. Although
now based at the headquarters of the Atlantic Fleet in Norfolk, Virginia,
with a command that spans hundreds of nautical miles, Fallon, has he distanced
himself from his alma mater. He visits the campus as often as he can.
He served as the guest of honor and reviewing officer for the ROTC Unit’s
Spring Review ceremony in April of 2001 and returned for the same event
again in April of 2003 when the ROTC Unit dedicated a memorial plaque
to his classmate, Patrick J. Harrington ’67 A&S.
As often as his busy schedule permits, the alumnus returns for basketball
or football games, or just to reunite with former classmates. Last November,
Admiral Fallon attended the Wildcats vs. Georgetown basketball game at
the Stadium. He has maintained ties with many fellow classmates with whom
he keeps in touch. “A lot of our gang–the class of ’67--
stay close,” he says. “We talk to each other all the time
or email. I received an email today from one of our classmates, a fellow
physics major from New York.” Among his legion of Villanova friends,
are Admiral Walter J. Doran ’67, commander of the Pacific Fleet;
Robert Capone ‘67, director of the Block V Program; Rear Admiral
James Eastwood (Ret.) ’67, president and owner of the Granary Associates
in Philadelphia; and Rear Admiral Joseph Hare ’67, U.S. Naval Reserve.
He also speaks kindly of his good friend, the Rev. George Riley, O.S.A.,
assistant vice president to the University president, who was the prefect
[check title w/Father Riley] in Alumni Hall when the admiral was an undergraduate.
“He’s a terrific guy whose known me and my wife for years.
I owe a lot to Father George Riley. He helped me out of hot water a few
times—saved my tail from the youthful indiscretions-- when I was
an undergraduate.”
Last December these alumni and others attended a special ceremony honoring
Fallon. The Armed Services Committee of the Union League of Philadelphia
honored the Admiral’s naval service with a “Dining-Out”
on December 5. The Dining-Out is an evening of good-natured celebration
of the keen rivalries among the military services which recognizes the
accomplishments, dedication, professional pride and sacrifice displayed
by those in uniform.
Interestingly, a large number of Villanova graduates have achieved the
rank of Flag officer. Some individuals have suggested the number of Villanova’s
grads is second only to the Naval Academy. While no statistics exist to
support the claim, the large number of Villanova Flag officers is a well
recognized fact in military circles. The joke goes that “a Villanova
Mafia” exists. Fallon chuckles in acknowledgment. “It’s
a standing point of humor with the rest of the Navy admirals,” he
says. “The Villanova majority is often noticed. During my years
as a junior officer, the Villanova gang would always meet off in the corner
for a group photo, secret handshake or something, so the others began
to suspect there was some kind of secret afoot,” he recalls. “It
is interesting to observe that quite a number of Villanova alumni have
achieved the rank of Flag officers and also general officers in the Marine
Corps.”
And hether or not he’s asked, this Villanova graduate looses no
opportunity to sing the praises of his alma mater. “Villanova was
a great choice and a great experience,” says Fallon. The Merchantville,
N.J., native came to Villanova on a Navy scholarship and majored in physics.
As an undergraduate, he decided he “was not suited to a career as
a theoretical physicist confined to a lab,” therefore he graduated
with a bachelor’s degree in social science degree and a physics
minor in 1967 and was commissioned an ensign upon graduation.
Fleet Forces Commander
 In
October 2003, Admiral Fallon was installed as commander of the Fleet Forces
Command in a ceremony held in Norfolk. His classmate, friend and colleague,
Admiral Walter Doran, commander of the Pacific Fleet, attended the event.
Prior to this, Fallon served as vice chief of the Navy, the service’s
number two man, based in Washington, D.C. “I worked with the head
of the Navy and I had two responsibilities: to help the boss with the
overall running of the Navy worldwide. Particularly, I ran the very large
and diverse Washington staff and to tried to keep that staff focused on
the big-picture Navy—the goals,” Fallon said.
Now in command of the Atlantic Fleet, Admiral Fallon is responsible for
“all the ships, airplanes, and particularly for all the personnel
who work on them,” he says. “I also have a responsibility
for the Fleet Forces, which is to basically perform the duties for organizing,
training and equipping our Navy forces in the Atlantic, but that’s
in the process of changing to a responsibility for all of our Navy forces.
It’s an evolving responsibility.”
“The title Fleet Forces Command, indicates we’re going to
expand the responsibilities, to include the whole Navy,” he explained.
“We are evolving, from what the Navy has been in the very recent
past to something that will be quite different. The tasks that we perform
will include the whole Navy. Those tasks include organizing, training
and equipping our forces, and basing the readiness of those forces in
one place. We would then provide those forces to the other commanders
of the world, such as Admiral Doran or his successors in the Pacific,
as well as to the other commanders in the European theater, which includes
all of Africa and a good portion of the Eastern Atlantic and Arctic oceans.
“We expect to provide a much more efficient and effective Navy for
the taxpayers, and that’s what we’re about. The restructuring
will not happen immediately. It takes time to transform the military services.
We have to consider ways to institute these changes. This is the challenge,
but the opportunity to actually initiate changes with Walt and I at the
helm of two respective fleets is a unique opportunity. We’ve known
each other for decades, and we enjoy each other’s company socially.
Professionally, we feel very comfortable, and it’s easy to phone
and talk to one another quite frankly on any issue.”
If he describes responsibilities that sound truly awesome, he is stating
mere facts. As a naval officer, his success results from a dedicated lifelong
tour of duty. A scan of Fallon’s career reveals he achieved his
present position by rising through the ranks over the challenges. After
receiving his commission through the Villanova Navy ROTC Program, he was
designated a naval flight officer upon completion of flight training in
December 1967. Fallon began his naval aviation service flying the RA-5C
Vigilante with a combat deployment to Vietnam. Later in 1974, he transitioned
to flying the A-6 Intruder. In subsequent flying assignments he served
with the Attack Squadrons and Carrier Air Wings for 24 years. These deployments
took him to the Mediterranean Sea, and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian
Oceans. On these deployments, he embarked on the USS Saratoga, USS Ranger,
USS Nimitz, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and USS Theodore Roosevelt. Altogether,
Fallon is credited with logging more than 1,300 carrier arrested landings
and 4,800 flight hours in tactical jet aircraft
After Villanova, Admiral Fallon graduated from the Naval War College in
Newport, R.I., the National War College in Washington, D.C., and earned
a master of arts degree in international studies from Old Dominion University.
His awards include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Distinguished
Service Medal, Defense Support Medal, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Meritorious
Service Medal, Air Medal, Navy Commendation Medal and various other honors.
Special U.S. Envoy
A few years ago, in February of 2001, Fallon served as the President’s
special U.S. Envoy to Japan after a U.S. submarine was involved in a collision
with a Japanese fishing trawler. The admiral delivered a letter of apology
from the U.S. president to Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. Fallon
met with relatives of the trawler victims and offered his personal apology
for the incident. He also traveled to Iwo Jima, the hometown of the students
missing at the time, for further meetings with relatives and town officials.
Fallon’s apology appeared to be well received in Japan.
In Chage of Transforming the Navy
VM: How will restructuring of the Navy change the Service?
AF: The plan is to consolidate all of the training and maintenance of
our Forces under my command as the Fleet Forces commander. For my piece
here in the Atlantic, a new title and another command was added to my
responsibility—Fleet Forces Command. That’s to send a signal
that we are going to expand the responsibility of things we do to include
the whole Navy. Under the new structure, the division here, the Atlantic
Fleet Forces, would be the single source that provides the forces that
are used worldwide by the Navy. We not only would take care of training
and equipping the staff and giving them the resources needed to be able
to carry out their missions. We would also attempt to discern the requirements
for our Navy today and in the future. We would do this here in Norfolk,
taking inputs in the future from Admiral Doran, and from any other Fleet
commanders around the world. We would consolidate those inputs and provide
them. Basically, it would be one-stop shopping for the Navy. They [Navy
commanding officers] would come here, to the Fleet Forces commander, for
anything to do with this organized training, equipping and resourcing
of the Fleets.
 VM:
How does this restructure affect the European theater which is under your
command?
AF: The European theater is the third major command in the Navy. It includes
a large part of the Eastern Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. In planning to
assume responsibility for the business of readiness, maintenance, the
Fleet Forces staff here would focus on doing those tasks, and the staff
in the Pacific would focus on the operational business in very vast area
of the Pacific. As we look to the future and potential changes in the
Far East—with Korea being unstable and China growing by leaps and
bounds—we’re not sure what issues will arise—but there’s
much work to be done out there. We would focus on the operational intelligence
and communication, command and control area, as well as assuming other
responsibilities.
VM: How challenging is the job of instituting change within the Navy?
AF: We’re evolving, but in the meantime, we have to figure out a
way to institute these changes and to work our way through the changes.
It’s a challenge because the culture gets used to doing what it
knows and likes very well. So the culture resists change.
VM: How much of an advantage is it to work with someone you know well,
like Admiral Doran, your classmate and friend, on this change?
AF: This is a unique opportunity, especially with Walt and I at the helm,
because we’ve known each other for decades, and we enjoy each other’s
company socially and professionally. It’s easy to pick up the phone
and to talk to one another frankly on any issue. That’s the real
benefit, I think. Admiral Vernon Clarke, the CNO of the Navy, knows this,
and that’s one reason he’s eager to have us advance this business.
At the end of the day, this whole business is about trust. The fact that
we certainly trust each other on matters large and small, and that our
staff see that, know the relationship and know the closeness of it, makes
it pretty easy to signal our people when there are the inevitable frictions
which arise. And our staff also knows we’ll figure out a way to
work through whatever problems arise. That’s kind of neat. I couldn’t
have crafted this one any better if I had wanted to.
VM: How does this evolving change you describe affect the size of the
Navy?
AF: The Navy has grown smaller over this decade in particular. We’re
down in size by about 40 percent because of technology applications and
specialization. When we introduce a command, new technology or equipment,
we new people and activities for those effects. Sometimes, entities, in
terms of commands, compete for scarce resources. So we’re trying
to eliminate and coalesce the resources [needs] that are common to many
activities and locate them in one or two places rather than locate them
in redundant spots all over the world. The way we grew up tended to be
“platform centric.” This term can be attributed to Vice Admiral
Arthur K. Cebrowski (Ret.), ‘64, another Villanova alumnus, who
is now director of transformation for the Department of Defense.
The idea behind “platform centric” is that we tended to build
ships and airplanes by piling in them every capability that we could imagine—we
tried to do everything with each platform. Now, we realize the power of
being able to tie together nodes at work and work total systems so we
can be less reliant on individual platforms and spread out our capabilities
around the leverage of the Internet and other technology, for example,
so that we’re able to pull resources together over hundreds of miles
when we need to, and not have everything in one place. So in that regard,
we’re following in Art’s footsteps.
VM: If the Navy is evolving, how long will it take before we see a substantial
difference between the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets, leading to the changes
you describe?
AF: It is a tough question to answer. There are numerous critical issues
to deal with. The Congress is very protective of the structures that exist
now because there are significant infrastructures in place and people
employed in jobs in various locations of high interest to Congressmen
and Senators. When realignment or downsizing changes are proposed, Congress
must approve the issues. Because of the realities of life, it will probably
take a couple of years.
The acronym BRAC, for base realignment and closure process—has been
in effect for about a decade. BRAC involves Congressional review of [military]
sites recommended by the Defense Department for possible downsizing, closure,
consolidation or realignment, and it is a highly contentious political
issue. The next BRAC review is scheduled for 2005, and we’re making
effort to review the Fleet’s doings so as not to duplicate our activities—to
do what’s smart and do it in one placae rather than two, and if
it makes sense to do that, we’ll do it right now. In the meanwhile,
we’re encouraging the staffs to implement future change.
IB: Will the Navy continue to be smaller in size?
VM: That’s a good point and a hotly debated issue. It will be in
some ways—in terms of structure and numbers of assets in the Fleet--but
there are competing pressures here. We have about 295 ships in the Navy
today, the smallest number since the 1930s. We would be hard-pressed to
fulfill our worldwide responsibilities and obligations if we get much
smaller.
IB: Does new technology compensate for larger numbers of personnel? Can
you accomplish the same goals with new technological advances and fewer
numbers of staff?
VM: We’re aware that the technology gives us some opportunities
to do things with fewer personnel, and we’d like to move in that
direction and take advantage of those opportunities. However, we’re
also aware that the ships we construct are designed for a long time. In
the case of aircraft carriers the lifespan is 40 to 50 years. So, if you
design something that’s still in service 40 years down the road,
it’s tough to make huge changes. The aircraft carriers we have now
were designed when the air wing was aboard, with a ballpark of 5,500 people.
Given the current design, it would be difficult to perform the required
functions with much fewer people.
Looking to the future, however, ships are being designed now that will
have substantially smaller crews than those currently serving. Again,
this will not happen overnight. It will take years to introduce the new
ships and phase out older ones. We can’t replace the whole fleet
right now, but we have to do it.
VM: How will the evolving Navy affect the personnel who staff it?
AF: Parallel with what I’ve just said, the support staff structures
as well as the system technical commands that make it possible to put
the Fleet to sea, will also evolve—for the reason that you mentioned,
with technological advances. We believe it’s possible to operate
increased advancing technological equipment with fewer people. And again,
because a fraction of our business—the resources that are devoted
to people—are very large and growing, this is something we’d
like to explore. Therefore, for all of those reasons, the trends will
be to continue to reduce the numbers of service staff, barring of course,
any large challenge in the world which would cause us to redirect our
plans.
In terms of size, if you look at the history of last few hundred years
of navies worldwide, they tend to expand and contract, depending upon
conditions in the world.
VM: If the U.S. was involved in a major worldwide conflict, how would
you adjust the size of he Navy to meet those needs?
AF: There’s been a vast capability increase in recent years. For
example, what we used to do with more ordnance, we can do with less. We
used to speak in terms of how many aircraft it would take to deal with
an individual target. Because the precision of the capabilities we have
is much greater, that’s completely reversed now. It’s how
many targets can one single airplane—aircraft sortie—take
care of. So, it isn’t really a numbers game any longer. The contributing
factors in this are that advances in technology have made it possible
to really change some of these equations dramatically.
As much as we love to talk about technology, the machines, ships and airplanes,
the real strength of the Service is its people. We’re particularly
blessed to have at this time some wonderful, fantastic men and women serving.
The new youngsters that come through our best programs, particularly those
at Villanova, are really first-rate, top-notch men and women who are in
our debt for being willing to offer themselves in service to the nation.
They’re smart, energetic and it’s really intriguing to periodically
return to the campus and see the young midshipmen who are in Villanova’s
ROTC program and to know they will be in the Fleet in a few years. As
Walt and I travel, people come up and introduce themselves as a grad of
the Wildcat Class of whatever year. I think that the Villanova foundation—the
good work of the Augustinians and the faculty—has certainly paid
great dividends—dividends, I can guarantee for the Navy, and for
the nation as a whole. It’s a gratifying to see new generations
of leaders come through the service. These wonderful men and women who
serve are what make the service and the nation great.
Villanova Memories
Among his Villanova memories Admiral, Fallon recalled several faculty
and Augustinian friars who were on staff during his undergraduate years.
He remembered The Rev. xxx Smith, dean of Admissions, who assisted him
during his visit to campus prior to applying for the Navy ROTC Program.
He also recalled sociology Professor Lawrence McGarry and physics department
chair John O’ Driscoll, who handed him his class schedule, which
“was not open for debate.” Fallon had the Rev. [name to be
checked w/Fr. Riley] Burns, O.S.A., for freshman theology. “He was
quite the character, had great powers of observation and the ability to
relate them to people,” Fallon said. “He had the moniker “AB,”
because he gave only two grades: A or B.”
Looking back on his undergraduate experience, Fallon credits Villanova
for his success in life. “As is true of the leadership in any organization,
it’s the boss who bears ultimate responsibility. Regardless of competing
interests and demands, it’s the boss who makes decisions about resources,”
he said. “Whatever our business, hopefully we make those decisions
in an enlightened manner. It all goes back to a good educational foundation,
and not just academics but education that builds character and morals,
and that’s what I see when I look back to my days on campus,”
said Fallon.
The friendship between Fallon and Doran has favorably impacted their work,
making it easier to cooperate on critical developments. “This opportunity
to actually initiate these changes in the Navy with Walt and me at the
helm of two respective fleets is a unique opportunity,” said Fallon.
“Because we’ve known each other for decades and we enjoy each
other’s company socially, but professionally, we feel very comfortable,
so it’s easy to pick up the phone and talk to one another quite
frankly on any issue. It’s a real benefit, because the CNO, Admiral
Vernon Clarke, the head of the Navy, knows this and I think that why he’s
eager to have us advance the business at hand. We’ve had experiences
in very different commands, but there aren’t too many places in
the Navy that neither of us have not had a chance to look at our touch.
When you compare our experiences, that brings a tremendously powerful
set of knowledge and skill to the table, and we’re using that to
our advantage. It’s a unique spot in time and we feel very fortunate
to be two sons of Villanova in this position at this time.”
Reflecting upon his feelings on being installed in his new position last
October 2003, Fallon recalled: “I was very humbled and honored that
the CNO, the boss of the Navy, as well as the Secretary of the Navy and
Secretary of Defense would have the confidence in me to ask me to do this,
and I saw it as a great opportunity. We had been working on these ideas
about how to make the Navy more efficient, and to get a better product
into the hands of our national leadership for a number of years. This
was an opportunity to actually advance our plans. In Washington, it’s
easy to plan. Here in Norfolk you’ve got to make it happen. You
get to work with the staff who provide a product, and so the opportunity
to actually come down and implement some of the things that we had talked
about, and dreamed about, and then to have the chance to work with Walt
Doran as my counterpart, is a wonderful opportunity. And I’ve been
fortunate and blessed to have been given it. It has been really exciting,
and I’m going to make the best of this opportunity.
“The greatest thing about being in the Navy is that you get a chance
to go around the world and meet people, form relationships and learn about
their cultures, what the issues are and work together to help solve them.
That’s one of the reasons I’m still in the Navy, because it’s
so interesting and challenging.”
Keeping Watch over the Pacific
 Last
spring, the men and women serving our country in the Pacific Fleet Forces
played a major role in Operation Iraqi Freedom. In fact, the USS Cheyenne,
a submarine in the Pacific Fleet command fired the Tomahawk Missile shots
that were the first salvos of the war. At the helm of the Pacific Fleet
is Admiral Walter F. Doran, a 1967 graduate of Villanova’s College
of Arts and Sciences.
Villanova alumnus Admiral Walter F. Doran, commands the U.S. Pacific Fleet,
a post he was appointed to on May 4, 2002. The 1967 graduate of the College
of Arts and Sciences is responsible for the world’s largest combined
fleet command, which encompasses 102 million square miles and spans the
an area from West Coast of the United States to Africa, including areas
of Southeast Asia such as Taiwan, China and Korea. He oversees more than
190 ships and submarines, 1,400 aircraft and 191,000 sailors, marines
and civilians. He has a professional interest in anti-submarine warfare
and ballistic defense.
“The Navy was a very important part of my Villanova experience,”
says Admiral Doran, but the Villanova alumnus didn’t plan his Navy
career. His professional life unfolded, “fortuitously,” he
says, after he was commissioned an ensign upon graduation from Villanova’s
ROTC program. “I had no great plan and it was not well thought out
when I started. I was happy to be at Villanova and enjoyed the experience.
Villanova instilled an encouraging attitude toward the young midshipmen
of the ROTC Unit, and wearing the uniform on campus was a very positive
thing. We were part of the mainstream of Villanova campus life. This positive
relationship between the University and the Navy has existed for a very
long time. I think that has been the very important reason why so many
of us [alumni] have been so successful in the Navy.”
The Albany, N.Y., native recalls he choose Villanova because “it
has a great reputation in upstate New York and also because the University
had a tremendous track team in those years.” (Doran ran track in
high school and was interested in the sport.) He graduated from Villanova
in 1967, earning a bachelor of arts degree in history. Upon being an ensign
in the United States Navy through Villanova’s Naval Reserve Officer
Training Program upon graduation, he was deployed to Vietnam in November
of that year. “We got there when the Tet Offensive was going on,”
he recalls. He returned to Vietnam again as a lieutenant in 1971, when
he was the operations officer on a destroyer out of Newport, R.I. “We’ve
got a ship in Vietnam today,” he states. “It’s the first
ship back—a Pacific Fleet frigate in Ho Chi Min City, which used
to be Saigon—and that’s a terrific accomplishment.”
“It’s important because it shows how much the world has changed,”
says Doran. “The Pacific Fleet frigate has gotten tremendous publicity
and has been received very well by the government of Vietnam. Sailors
from the Pacific Fleet are now walking the streets of Ho Chi Min City.
So, for the first time in a generation, it’s a very positive development
for all of us.”
Almost 37 years later, Doran is still focused on Southeast Asia with responsibilities
that have burgeoned. He oversees a 7 billion dollar operating budget,
including the same amount targeted for in the Pacific Fleet personnel
payroll and a Joint Task Force (JTF-519). The Pacific Fleet organizes
trains and equips the U.S. Naval forces in the Western Pacific and provides
them not only to the Pacific, but throughout the Indian Ocean and into
the Persian Gulf. The JTF-519 is a fully deployable joint task force capable
of planning and executing any contingency from relatively small-scale
operations, such as noncombatant evacuations or maritime interdiction,
to major theater conflict. From a business point of view,” he says,
“I’m responsible for managing this organization [the Navy]
in the best possible manner for the taxpayer’s dollar. It’s
a terrific job, but it’s also in an area of the world right now
where we better be paying attention.” Doran identified several issues
which concerned him. “There’s an emerging China, there are
the problems with Korea, there’s our tremendous relationship with
the Japanese, and there’s the global war on terrorism. So if you
look at Southeast Asia, there are numerous things there that we need to
pay attention to.”
 Doran’s
command also involves securing defenses for our nation’s global
war on terrorism. “We work with friendly, cooperative and Allied
navies in the Western Pacific. We observe what’s going on out there,
for example -- the movement of people, and movement of illicit cargoes,”
he explains. “If you look at the movement of some of the terrorist
personalities, as life in Afghanistan and Iraq has gotten very difficult
for them, some of the terrorists unfortunately have worked their way down
to places such as Indonesia. Remember the terrible bombing in Bali over
a year ago? To prevent similar incidents, we work very closely in providing
both forces and some training for the navies that are out there, and we’re
also focused on force protection, to make sure that our ships and our
young sailors are safe when we put them into ports throughout the areas.
So, there’s a lot going on and enough to do right now in that area,
and there will be for a long time.”
In projecting what to expect from China and Korea in the future, he sees
two distinct challenges that don’t necessarily involve conflict.
“They’re two different situations. China is emerging and developing.
The Chinese are finding their place in the world, and we need to pay a
lot of attention to them. China does not have to develop as an adversary
of the United States, but we need to nurture the relationships between
our two countries. We therefore work very closely with the Defense Department
in making sure that we have an adequate and an appropriate military-to-military
relationship with the Chinese. As China emerges, we are watching very,
very carefully. We want to have an appropriate and mature relationship
with China, but we’re also very careful about what’s going
on there.” To foster good relationships, Doran meets regularly with
commanders of other navies. He recently met with the Nanjing military
region commander, Gen. Zhu Wenguan. “We had lunch and talked about
our individual forces and how we develop them and train our staff. It
was interesting,” he said.
On the other hand, Doran sees reason for caution in dealings with Korea.
“Korea is very dangerous and you have to watch very carefully what
Kim Jung Il is doing. Several years ago, Doran accompanied [official title]
Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright to Korea and met its leader.
“We spent six hours of discussion with Kim Jung Il. That’s
a very precarious situation, which is getting a lot of attention at present.”
Doran explained: “The SEVENTH Fleet works under my command, and
it spends much time in the waters around Korea, just making sure that
we have good situational awareness. Of course we maintain a friendship
and are allies with the South Korean government—the Republic of
Korea—and we maintain very good working relationships with the Republic
of Korea Navy.”
“The focus in the Western Pacific is one that is very important
for the United States, because if you look at the development of trade
across the Pacific and the emergence of China onto the world state—both
as an economic partner –and as a [possible] member of the World
Trade Organization—there’s a lot of work out there. Overall,
there are many issues that we need to pay a much close attention to over
the next generation. Nevertheless, I’m pretty optimistic about the
way the Pacific will develop.”
The commander is often asked to speculate about the “what ifs—the
possibilities for conflict.” “We certainly hope nothing happens
in Korea, but I’m also very comfortable with the level of training
and readiness in the forces that we have in the Western Pacific and their
ability to maintain the peace and keep the Pacific stable.”
In assessing the Navy’s future, Doran is working closely with Villanova
alumnus Admiral William Fallon ’67 A&S, the commander of the
Fleet Forces, on plans for restructuring the force. “The Navy today
is very a different organization from what I came into when I left Villanova,”
he said. “This is an all volunteer force. The personnel are in there
because they joined voluntarily. And this is true for all the services.
That makes a big difference. The quality of service, the caliber of the
young men and women, the quality of life, the investments that we have
made as an organization in these youngsters today is much grander than
what we were doing 36 years ago. So, the level of readiness that we have
in this force is something we couldn’t even imagine in 1967.”
Most recently the men and women of the Pacific Fleet Forces played a major
role in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He cited as an example that PAC Fleet
has six carrier battle groups built around aircraft carriers and also
six amphibious ready groups. “When Operation Iraqi Freedom occurred
last spring, it was necessary to have a large number of carriers out there
to be able to provide the strike on very short notice. We were able to
deploy five out of six carrier battle groups from the West Coast of the
United States and Japan to the Gulf in a very short time. To get them
going, they had their wings aboard, they were trained, and the level of
maintenance-readiness training was excellent. They arrived in the Gulf,
and did the job they had to do in answer to the President’s call.
Of five battle groups we deployed, I kept one in the Western Pacific to
keep a watchful eye on what was going on in North Korea, while everybody
else went farther West. Four of my carrier groups proceeded on through
the Indian Ocean into the Gulf for combat action. In fact, the first shots
of the war were fired from the Pacific Fleet submarine, the USS Cheyenne.
It fired the Tomahawk Missile shots that were the first salvos in Operation
Iraqi Freedom. They did a terrific job, and we brought them home,”
said the Admiral. “The USS Nimitz was the last to come home in November;
the level of professionalism and training expertise that is in this Navy
right now was unthought-of of in 1967 when I walked aboard my first destroyer.
While Doran sees a new and different Navy emerging today, he feels the
restructuring will provide a better naval force. “Many things have
changed, socially, economical, and in all ways,” he says. “The
pay is better, so are the opportunities,” he says. Women hold various
leading positions. Women now command destroyers, and women fly fighter
jets off the decks of carriers in the Gulf. When I entered the Navy, women
who were on active duty were either in administrative or nursing roles.
As the nation has changed in 36 years, the Navy has changed every bit
as much. We’re proud of the Navy that we built, but that Navy was
primarily built for a Cold War situation. That Navy that we built—which
we are all very proud of--may not be exactly the right force structure
that we need for the war on terrorism. Therefore, we are going through
a period of great transformation in the Navy now, and it is exciting to
be part of that.”
As a supporting commander, Doran shares responsibilities for areas of
the Homeland Defense. “Homeland Defense is a very new and very important
growth business for us,” Doran says. Since the tragedies of September
11, 2001, he has worked closely with the Coast Guard and the other military
services through the U.S. Northern Command “to provide a defense
posture that is appropriate for the homeland,.” “We want to
take this war away from the Homeland, and to take it to the terrorists
where they are, so that we are not fighting them in our cities and on
our great country. This is not just a Navy issue. It’s a jo int
issue, but it’s very much part of what we’re doing right now.”
Doran observes.
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