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Accomplished
admiral honored

Retired Adm. Ronald J. Hays, the most decorated member of the U.S. Naval Academy's class of 1950 with three Silver Stars, seven Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Bronze Star with combat "V" and 18 Air Medals, received the Distinguished Graduate Award on Friday.

Also honored at a special ceremony before the Brigade of Midshipmen at Annapolis, Md., were: retired Capt. Slade D. Cutter, class of 1935; retired Rear Adm. Robert H. Wertheim, class of 1946; and H. Ross Perot, class of 1953, a businessman who made an unsuccessful bid for president.

Hays served 38 years as a naval aviator, flying more than 160 combat flights in both Korea and Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, Hays flew missions into high-threat areas of North Vietnam. After the Vietnam War, Hays held various leadership positions, including commanding officer of Roosevelt Roads Naval Air Station in Puerto Rico; commander of Naval Forces Europe; and commander of Pacific forces. After retiring in 1988, Hays served as chief executive officer of the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research. He then joined Parsons Corp., a global engineering firm, for which he still works today. He also served as chairman of the USS Missouri Memorial Association and led a four-year effort to establish the USS Missouri near the USS Arizona.

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Two sailors from Kauai's Pacific Missile Range Facility rescued an injured visitor at Kipu Falls on Easter Sunday. On March 27, Autumn Lawler and her sister Amber Drew, accompanied by Amber's husband, Petty Officer Justin Drew, and other sailors from the missile range, went to swim at Kipu Falls on the southern side of Kauai.

Autumn Lawler broke her arm and broke two small bones in her neck and received a 3-inch laceration to her forehead when she jumped from a ledge. Petty Officer Grzegorz Dlugolecki saw her fall and decided to check on her as she surfaced. He was joined by Petty Officer Erik Potter, also a Navy rescue swimmer.

Navy rescue swimmers have been involved in a number of real-life rescues recently, including the at-sea airlifts of injured local dive instructor Matthew Isham, and a sailor aboard the Pearl Harbor-based USS Chosin suffering from appendicitis.

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President Bush has substituted retired Air Force Gen. Lloyd Newton for retired Lt. Gen. Claude Kicklighter on the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. Kicklighter had been a replacement for one of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's recommendations, retired Army Gen. John Coburn. The White House was forced to submit the name of Kicklighter last month because it was not able to clear Coburn in time.

Kicklighter, who was Army commander in the Pacific from 1989 to 1991, is now chief of staff at the Department of Veterans Affairs. On May 16, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will recommend what installations he believes should be closed. The commission will review those recommendations and present its findings to the president by Sept. 8. If President Bush accepts the panel's recommendations, the list goes to Congress, which can only block the recommended actions if both chambers pass resolutions of disapproval, which has never happened.

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Troops now can now receive separate medals for different periods of service in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite the Bush administration's support for a single Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal for both countries. Congress last year overrode the White House and passed a law to create separate medals. Bush signed the law May 28. U.S. troops who served in Afghanistan or Iraq will receive medals specific to each campaign, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Moving up

» Camp Smith: Col. VeraLinn "Dash" Jamieson, special assistant to the commander of the Pacific Command, will assume command of the Joint Intelligence Center Pacific from Capt. Barbara J. Bowyer, who will be going to the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency in St. Louis.