[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 96 (Wednesday, June 26, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7055-S7056]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  ADMIRAL BERNARD A. CLAREY REMEMBERED

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, America lost a great hero this week. That 
was Admiral Bernard A. Clarey, former Commander in Chief of the Pacific 
Fleet. I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record at the 
conclusion of my remarks the New York Times article detailing his 
extraordinary career.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (See exhibit 1.)
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, when it was my privilege to serve in the 
Department of Defense between the years 1969 and 1974 in the posts of 
Under Secretary and Secretary of the Navy, Admiral Clarey was Vice 
Chief of Naval Operations. The No. 2 man under the CNO, who at that 
time was Adm. Thomas Moorer; Admiral Clarey subsequently was 
transferred, and I had the privilege of cutting his orders, to the 
position of Commander in Chief of all U.S. Forces in the Pacific, one 
of the most important commands. Admiral Zumwalt had become the CNO, and 
together we decided that Admiral Clarey was the best qualified flag 
officer in the Navy to take on this post at the time of the very 
serious conflict in Vietnam.
  I had the privilege of working very closely with this distinguished 
naval officer in both his capacity as Vice Chief and as Commander in 
Chief of the Pacific Forces. I say with the greatest humility that I 
looked upon him as one might look upon an older brother. He was an 
extraordinary man, decorated with the second highest decoration of the 
United States Navy, the Navy Cross, in three separate instances, for 
his heroism during World War II, and he earned his distinguished naval 
record ever since graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1934.
  I remember so well in the fall of 1972, during a very intense period 
of the war in Vietnam, I, as Secretary, went out to, as we called it in 
those days, ``West Pac,'' with Admiral Clarey. We proceeded to the 
theater of operations in Vietnam. We stopped several times inland, and 
then we proceeded to visit each of the ships off the coast of Vietnam 
in a period of 72 hours. My recollection is that we visited some 24 
ships, being lowered by helicopter onto the deck of each ship to make 
our brief inspection, but mainly to commend the sailors for their 
service to country and the cause of freedom. We then completed our trip 
and returned to the United States.
  I recall very vividly that we participated in a Christmas service 
offshore on the bow of one of our larger cruisers, which at that very 
moment was conducting operations to rescue airmen who had been shot 
down during the night in bombing missions.
  Admiral Chick Clarey was a man whom I shall always identify as the 
epitome of what every sailor aspires to be. His wife, Jean, was 
wonderful with him--no finer Navy Wife ever existed. I pay him his 
final salute as he goes on to his just rewards.
  I yield the floor.

                               Exhibit 1

                       [From the New York Times]

                  Former Pacific Fleet Commander Dies

       Adm. Bernard A. Clarey, a former vice chief of naval 
     operations who commanded America's naval might in the Pacific 
     as the country sought to extricate itself from the quagmire 
     of war in Indochina, died on Saturday at Tripler Hospital in 
     Honolulu. He was 84 and lived in Honolulu, where he retired 
     in 1973 as commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet.
       The cause was a heart attack, his family said.
       In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson gave Clarey his fourth 
     star and appointed him vice chief, the No. 2 spot in the 
     Navy's uniformed hierarchy. But when Adm. Elmo R. Zumwalt 
     became chief of Naval Operations two years later, he chose 
     his own closest

[[Page S7056]]

     aides and Clarey assumed the Pacific command in Hawaii.
       It was a familiar duty station for Clarey, who had survived 
     the attack on Pearl Harbor as executive officer on the 
     submarine Dolphin. But now, in December 1970, he took charge 
     of the entire Pacific Fleet, including its vessels off 
     Vietnam and naval-air operations over North Vietnam.
       The assignment put him in a sensitive position. American 
     military strength in the war had peaked at nearly 550,000 in 
     1969; the country was racked by mass demonstration's and 
     peace negotiations in Paris proceeded fitfully despite the 
     raids on the North. And racial conflict aboard the Pacific 
     Fleet led to a congressional inquiry.
       Bernard Ambrose Clarey was born in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and 
     graduated from the Naval Academy in 1934. He trained at 
     Submarine School in New London, Cohn., in the late 1930s.
       After his baptism of fire at Pearl Harbor, he went on a war 
     patrol in the Marshall Islands aboard the Dolphin. Rising in 
     rank and command, he continued on patrol duty in various 
     parts of the Pacific and was one of the early commanders in 
     the highly damaging forays against Japanese shipping late in 
     the war, He was awarded three Navy Crosses for valor.
       He was back in combat in the Korean War as executive 
     officer on the heavy cruiser Helena, earning a Bronze Star. 
     Further duty tours took him to Washington, back to Pearl 
     Harbor, and to Norfolk where he planned NATO training 
     exercises and took part in high-level conferences.
       Recalled to the Pentagon in 1967, he served as director of 
     Navy Program Planning and Budgeting in the Office of Chief of 
     Naval Operations until his appointment as vice chief the next 
     year.
       After his retirement from the Navy he worked as vice 
     president of the Bank of Hawaii for Pacific Rim Operations.
       Clarey is survived by his wife of 59 years, Jean Scott 
     Clarey; two sons, Rear Adm. Stephen S. Clarey, retired, of 
     Coronado, Calif., and Michael O. Clarey of Scarsdale, N.Y.; a 
     brother, William A. of Peoria, Ill; a sister, Janice Bracken 
     of Paramus, N.J.; five grandchildren, and one great-
     granddaughter.

                          ____________________