Army & Navy: Still Stooging

Younger naval airmen rejoiced tepidly last week when they heard that Vice Admiral John Sidney McCain had been relieved of his job as the Navy's No. 1 Airman: deputy chief of naval operations for air.

They had nothing personal against weathered, likable Admiral McCain. But he was a Johnny-come-lately in aviation who did not learn to fly until he was 52.

To naval air zealots' way of thinking, the only choice for the Navy's top air job is a top-flight airman. Anything else is just "stooging," which is flyers' slang for pooping around. That...

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