[Dioxin-l] Elmo Zumwalt, Vietnam-Era U.S. Admiral, Dead at 79

[Jon Campbell]

This is very sad. Zumwalt was a fighter for truth, justice, and exposure of
the lies of the government and the chemical industry regarding Agent Orange.

Jon

-----Original Message-----
From: hope@igc.org [mailto:hope@igc.org]
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2000 4:54 PM
Subject: [Dioxin-l] Elmo Zumwalt, Vietnam-Era U.S. Admiral, Dead at 79



-----------------------------------------------
This Excite News Article
(http://news.excite.com/news/r/000102/15/news-people-zumwalt)
has been sent to you from hope@igc.org
-----------------------------------------------

Message from sender:
Another one of our heroes gone.  Remember how eloquently he spoke at the
Dioxin Conference in St. Louis several years ago?  This wonderful man will
be missed by many of us.
Joy Towles Ezell
President and Founder
HOPE (Help Our Polluted Environment) in Taylor County,Florida
P. O. Box 327
Salem, Florida   32356
email:  hope@igc.org
850 584-7087   





News Article: Elmo Zumwalt, Vietnam-Era U.S. Admiral, Dead at 79

DURHAM, N.C. (Reuters) - Retired Adm. Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr.,
who was commander of U.S. naval operations during part of the
Vietnam War, died early on Sunday at the age of 79 of
complications from chest cancer surgery, a family spokesman
said.     
Zumwalt died at 7:26 a.m. EST at the Duke University Medical
Center.     
He was commander of naval operations in Vietnam from 1968 to
1970 and became chief of U.S. naval operations in July 1970 at
the age of 49, making him the youngest officer to hold the post.     
He was famous for "Z-Grams" relaxing regulations that
enlisted men considered demeaning and senseless. His changes
permitted the wearing of beards and long hair if neatly
maintained and of civilian clothes at shore installations. He
also granted more free time in port.     
As the Navy's senior officer, Zumwalt increased the combat
effectiveness of the U.S. fleet by outfitting ships with more
sophisticated and efficient weapons.     
During the Vietnam War, he ordered much of the spraying of
Agent Orange along Vietnamese waterways. In later years, Zumwalt
blamed the defoliant, which contained the toxic chemical dioxin,
for the death from cancer of his own son, Elmo Zumwalt III.     
His son was a navy lieutenant who commanded a river patrol
boat in Vietnam and who fought under his father's command. Elmo
Zumwalt III died at the age of 42 in 1988 of Hodgkin's disease
and a rare kind of lymphoma.     
The elder Zumwalt said he did not regret ordering the use of
Agent Orange because it reduced casualties by making it
difficult for the enemy to hide and find food.     
More recently, he had supported efforts to add a plaque to
the Vietnam Memorial in Washington honoring veterans who died
from ailments related to Agent Orange.     
On a 1994 visit to Vietnam after his retirement from the
Navy, Zumwalt proposed joint research on Agent Orange's effects.
His visit made him the most senior wartime U.S. officer to visit
Vietnam since the end of the war.     
He wrote two books. "My Watch," published in 1976,
recounted his Navy career and warned Americans about the Soviet
naval threat. "My Father, My Son," published in 1986, was
co-written with his late son and recounted their Vietnam
experiences and the illness that would later kill the son.     
Zumwalt was born in Tulare, California, and graduated cum
laude from the Naval Academy in 1942.     
He served on destroyers during the Second World War and was
awarded a Bronze Star for valor during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
In the Korean War, he was navigator of the battleship Wisconsin.     
Zumwalt retired as chief of naval operations in July 1974.
He ran unsuccessfully in Virginia in 1976 as a Democratic 
candidate for the U.S. Senate. President Clinton awarded him the
Presidential Medal of Freedom in January 1998.     
Zumwalt was president of Admiral Zumwalt and Consultants
Inc., a consulting firm specializing in energy, health care and
overseas business operations. He was a member of the President's
Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and the Special Oversight
Board for Department of Defense Investigations of Gulf War
Chemical and Biological Incidents.     
He lived in McLean, Virginia.