Saturday March 3 11:06 AM ET
Military Service Leaders To Be Named

WASHINGTON (AP) - Three corporate executives are under consideration to lead the Air Force, Army and Navy, administration officials said Saturday.

The three men have been interviewed by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the White House was expected to announce next week that it will send their names to the Senate for confirmation, The Washington Times reported Saturday, quoted unidentified sources.

But two administration sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that President Bush (news - web sites) has not made a decision and that the nominations were not a certainty.

The Times said Gordon R. England, 63, who retired last week as a vice president at General Dynamics Corp., would be nominated as Navy secretary. England was responsible for the company's information systems and international programs.

The newspaper also said James G. Roche, 61, a vice president at Northrop Grumman Corp., was the pick to head the Air Force. Roche, a retired Navy captain, worked in the State Department during the Reagan administration and later was Democratic staff director for the Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites).

The nominee for Army secretary was said to be Thomas E. White, 57, a retired Army general and an executive with Enron Corp., a Houston-based energy company. White was executive assistant to Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) when he was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The newspaper quoted White as saying that he had been interviewed by Rumsfeld on Friday, but nothing has been confirmed. Roche declined to comment and England was unavailable.

Messages left Saturday with representatives of the three companies were not immediately returned.

 

 

"When the way comes to an end, then change - having changed, you pass through."

      I. Ching

 

 Bruce "Doc". Melson

http://www.docmelson.com/