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Admiral Vern Clark Edited Remarks
Retirement of Vice Admiral Tim LaFleur, 
Commander, Naval Surface Forces and 
Commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet 
San Diego, Calif.
March 4, 2005


CNO:  Thank you very much.  The greetings have been made to the 
LaFleur family, the Etnyre family, to all of the very special 
guests who are here today.  Flag and General Officers and 
distinguished guests, and ladies and gentlemen.  It's a thrill 
to be in San Diego again.  A Sailor's favorite city, to see so 
many of you, to hear of so many of you.  I can't see you very 
well the way the sun is shining here but to hear all the names 
of friends who are here and shipmates and to be here for this 
very, very important event; a day that symbolizes our compliance 
with our heritage and the Navy Regulations that talk to the 
accountability of command and the purpose of an event like this.  
This ceremony literally has brought out a Who's Who of the Navy 
family in San Diego California, past and present, and I must say 
that today is a landmark day for our Navy because we pass the 
torch of leadership between two great Americans and two great 
Sailors, Vice Admiral Tim LaFleur and soon to be Vice Admiral 
Terry Etnyre.  And we celebrate, Tim said 35 years of 
commissioned service to the nation.  If you count the time that 
he wore the uniform before he received his commission, almost 39 
years of service for Tim LaFleur to our nation and to our Navy.  
A leader who really did put the 'super' in Super TYCOM.  Now all 
of you insiders know what I'm talking about.  Those of you who 
don't do the Navy everyday won't know for sure but we can talk 
about it later… that's a 10-minute excursion of a speech, and 
all these people sitting on the platform (inaudible).  

But Tim LaFleur is a courageous innovator, a true visionary.  A 
person who understands mission accomplishment, and who has 
specialized in the growth and the development of the surface 
Navy.  We welcome also Terry Etnyre and his beautiful wife 
Ingrid, soon to be the new leader of this community.  Ingrid and 
all of your family, Terry and your family, I think it's great 
that they are all here and the LaFleur family is here from all 
over the country and so, a special day for the Navy and also a 
very special day for these two families.  And I do consider it a 
real privilege to be here today with these luminaries who are on 
the podium.  My boss, the Secretary of the Navy, Admiral Walt 
Doran and the two principals of this day.  We are here not only 
to show our deep respect to Tim and Terry, but to honor this 
very proud community which is at the heart of our institution.  
So the first order of business, the official welcome to Terry 
and Ingrid to your new home, Coronado, California.  They come to 
us from Norfolk, Virginia and I know the climate is a little bit 
different there and it is certainly a lot different today.  But 
very soon, Terry and Ingrid you will forget all about that and 
you probably won't even have the default position on your 
television set to the Weather Channel.  In fact, the term 'sunny 
and clear' will get to be so boring but somebody has to do it.  
And we know that while this will be a huge adjustment, we're 
absolutely confident that, because you have walked this turf 
before that you will adjust rapidly and we know that you will 
figure out a way to get used to the trials and climes of San 
Diego, California again.  Terry comes to this job extremely well 
prepared from Command of Naval Surface Forces Atlantic.  He 
arrived there with the -- you know that two people on this 
podium had something to do with him getting there in the first 
place.  And we had a plan.  Secretary England and I are here 
today watching the product of the plan.  He comes from Norfolk, 
brings a lifetime of excellence to our Navy.  He and I have 
worked together twice before.  I know him very well.  He has 
been a huge part of this TYCOM Team, Tim's deputy on the east 
coast for the past two and-a-half years.  So he is very well 
prepared.  And in my mind, no one, and I mean absolutely no one, 
is more ready to take this job than Terry Etnyre.  

Let me talk about Tim LaFleur.  I believe that we are all called 
in one way or another to this vocation.  And Tim LaFleur 
answered that call in 1966 when he entered the United States 
Naval Academy.  He describes himself in those days as a skinny 
wrestler from Chicago who joined the Navy in the middle of a 
war.  He selected a minesweeper for his first assignment out of 
the academy.  So, to his first ship the United States Ship 
Constant MSO 427, a minesweeper, that's where he was headed 
right out of the Annapolis.  And even his first welcoming to the 
Navy surface force was highly anticipated.  His first Commanding 
Officer, Captain Larry Blumberg, and I understand Larry is 
retired and I understand he is in the audience, good to see you.  
But way back then they were anticipating his arrival.  In fact 
I'm told that the ship was headed for deployment.  It was the 
middle of the war, they were heading for Vietnam and duty on 
station for Operation Market Time.  The ship was getting ready 
to sail, Ensign LaFleur didn't show when they sailed (laughter).  
Well, they figured he was at school someplace.  But off out of 
Long Beach they went and they were still expecting his arrival.  
So the tiny minesweeper plied its way to Hawaii where the six-
man wardroom still awaited the arrival of Ensign LaFleur, nope 
he wasn't there either.  They steamed on without him, on the 
long voyage to Guam. And yes, there he was.  Waiting for his 
rendezvous with destiny.  Starting out on MSO-427.  Tim bloomed 
where he was planted everywhere he went.  And his next 
assignment, his performance there at the MSO was such that he 
got a chance to go to what was called the pick of the litter 
back then.  We had a structure called the Mod Squad and 
everybody in the organization was one grade junior and off he 
went to be Ops Boss on the United States Ship Hawkins (DD 873).  
Of the 15-person wardroom, nine were ensigns.  You can imagine 
what that commanding officer was thinking (laughter).  And the 
lieutenants were kings and Tim was one of those lieutenants.  
Hawkins was ordered to make a short notice deployment to the 
Middle East Force and there was Tim wearing his railroad tracks, 
the greatest feeling that I remember most was the best change 
from the single bar to those railroad tracks.  Gathering his JOs 
in the war room, clearing the table, replacing the china and the 
silver with eight telephones.  Exercising the recall bill, 
making the logistics calls, getting the ship moving toward 
deployment and success.  And Tim's career progressed.  And as it 
did his reputation continued to grow with years of experience.  
Years of leading and years of learning.  Being groomed through 
the ranks.  Next as Engineering Officer on the Fort Snelling LSD 
30.  And then, flag aide on a group staff, that's a test, that's 
a test.  Then to be detailer in Washington, DC.  Then to be, 
then on to graduate school, Monterey and then XO on another 
destroyer, one of our new 963 class.  And then chief staff 
officer, Destroyer Squadron 31 and then Mr. Secretary, he 
receives his first taste of Washington, DC duty.  Off to the 
Office of Program Appraisal.  Many of you who are in the Navy 
have certainly heard of that place.  So, assignment to OPA, and 
there snatched out of OPA to go where the air was really rare.  
To be the administrative aide, Mr. Secretary, to the Secretary 
of the Navy.  And we all know that that has always been a 
kingmaker job.  Well, there he was.  But then came the best, the 
opportunity to command.  And most of you, certainly all of you 
in the Navy know how I feel about command.  But I will continue 
to say this every time I get the chance and my chances are 
becoming fewer and fewer but as long as I have this chance, this 
is the way that we will talk about it.  Command is our greatest 
prize.  Our most sacred trust.  And everything that Tim LaFleur 
had worked and prepared for came to him in the moment that he 
took command of that ship.  He would take command and assume 
complete responsibility.   Complete authority would be given to 
him.  But also, we would hold him completely accountable for the 
lives and operations of that ship, the United States Ship 
Elliot, DD 967, entrusted to him.  And he excelled.  And, oh by 
the way, this is the first time I really got to know Tim 
LaFleur.  I was serving on the waterfront, right over here at 
DESRON SEVENTEEN.  That was the beginning of a very, very close 
personal relationship.  The type commander at the time, laid out 
a special task force and Tim and I both landed on that group.  
And that very special relationship, first a close personal 
relationship, then a very close family relationship that has 
prospered these many years with Tim and Judy and their family.  
We saw him in command, being a great team member, growing 
Sailors to sail, to lead, to excel and if necessary to fight.  
And after his command Tim was being groomed for another route, 
the path to flag rank.  He joined the joint staff just weeks 
after I had arrived there in the middle of Operation Desert 
Storm.  Now there are so many stories to tell you about this.  
So many stories.  But let me just make a long story short.  What 
Tim did is that he got up every morning and he briefed the 
Secretary of Defense, a guy named Cheney, you might remember 
him, the Chairman, a guy named Powell, you might remember him, 
and the J3, Army 3-star general named Kelly and if you were 
around him you'd sure remember him.  And every day Tim got up 
and (inaudible) created an organization to do that.

He was magnificent there, and then went on to command that same 
destroyer squadron I talked about a moment ago, DESRON 
SEVENTEEN.  In the middle of that he got called for a little 
short special duty assignment to go take command of the USS 
Flint, an AE, that was a little bit off the beaten path and 
explaining that would take a little more time than we can spend 
today.  But all of that is to say, an incredible breadth of 
experience.  After that, Archie Clemins gave him a call.  I 
understand Archie is here someplace, I can't see… There is he is 
in the front row, I believe I can see him, I can see Archie and 
Marilyn.  He was off to the Seventh Fleet.  And it is supposed 
to be a two-year tour but it turned out to be only six months 
because he got a call to come back to Washington to be the 
executive assistant to the CNO.  Then he was selected for flag 
and as a flag officer he continued to grow on duty in 
Washington, DC.  And then, back in command again.  The 
Constellation Battle group enforcing UN sanctions in the Arabian 
Gulf.  And it was from there that I had been given orders to go 
be the Commander of the Atlantic Fleet and I asked Tim to come 
and be my deputy.  I needed a doer.  I needed a thinker.  I 
needed an innovator and I couldn't have chosen a better one.  We 
were completely aligned.  I would start a sentence, Tim would 
finish it.  He helped me literally shape the framework for 
action that I put into place when I left there to take on the 
assignment that I'm serving in today as the CNO.  In fact, 
priority number five on my Top 5 list is alignment and that came 
from Tim LaFleur.  He got it from George Labovitz who is also in 
the audience today.  George is somewhere, I saw him out on the 
pier earlier.  George Labovitz, The Power of Alignment, the 
importance for us to be aligned and have a common set of vectors 
for our Navy.  Of course, we bought some books for all of our 
flag officers and I think George has been grinning ever since 
(laughter).  This all came from my exposure to Tim.  Our year 
one personal project was the reshaping and the alignment of the 
United States Navy.  And we saw a need to recreate the community 
leadership that in our view we had lost.  The heart of that 
effort was the type commander merger.  To create one Navy, it 
was our view that these two organizations and these two fleets 
the Atlantic and the Pacific could not function as two but had 
to function as one.  And the term Super- TYCOM was born as we 
established these individuals to lead our major communities.  
Tim I thought was the perfect officer to rise to leadership and 
replace Ed Moore as the surface Navy's Super TYCOM.  I wanted 
Tim because as I said he was an innovator, but he was also a 
person who had the courage to challenge the status quo.  And it 
wasn't something that came to him late in life; it was a 
characteristic that he had been demonstrating all of his life.  
And it was time to do that, in my view, at the most senior 
levels of the United States Navy.  Many of us for years study, 
do studies, and do studies, and do studies.  And then we think 
about maybe we should do something and maybe then we study and 
we study.  Well I don't like that approach very well.  Tim 
LaFleur had a different mindset too.  He didn't wait and he put 
the rudder over hard and I'll tell you honestly at the time none 
of us were completely certain of the outcome.  Who could predict 
the future?  And yet, collectively we were very confident that 
there was incredible value in this journey and ladies and 
gentlemen, Tim LaFleur had the courage to lead us on this new 
journey.  He got to the heart of why we did things.  Challenged 
decades old assumptions.  Helped give our institution a 
corporate perspective, applying business principles to logistics 
and training and manning.  He taught us the potential of fleet 
alignment.  He rewrote our Navy's flag officer assessments.  He 
drafted the fleet requirements for the Littoral Combatant Ship.  
He engineered the concepts behind Sea Swap.  He orchestrated our 
Optimal Manning concepts.  He agreed that it was time to capture 
the full potential of our senior enlisted force and is now 
putting chief petty officers into division officer billets on 
the United States Ship Decatur.  And along with Phil Balisle he 
has led a revolution in the maintenance game, something that we 
call SHIPMAIN, completely restructuring the way that we maintain 
our ships.  And he created the Fleet Response Plan in the 
surface Navy that has changed the face of the operational Navy.  
He drastically improved the operational availability of the 
entire surface force.  And there are dozens more things that I 
could talk about.  This courageous and transformational thinker, 
willing to lead, change, willing to confront reality.  And he 
understood the requirement to create a sense of urgency.  Tim 
followed the council of a fellow wrestler and naval officer from 
Chicago.  You may have heard of this gentleman, who in 
Rumsfeld's Rules said, "If you try to please everybody, 
somebody's not going to like it."  And, "Don't necessarily avoid 
sharp edges; occasionally they are necessary to leadership."  It 
was his leadership that helped us open the possibilities of 
change and it was his focus on people and his great respect and 
appreciation for his Sailors that ensured our success.  Tim 
LaFleur is a great surface warrior.  Tough enough for any job, 
bold enough to challenge the rules and detailed enough to pull 
it off with the energy to see it through.  Tim, my friend, you 
have made a great difference and you have served well.  Your 
thumbprints are all over this institution and will be for a 
long, long time to come.  I want you to know that I am 
personally very grateful for your service.  Judy, you've been a 
partner in this lifestyle of service.  Now, Judy has invested 
her life in this journey too.  Because I said, we've become very 
close as a family, so I probably know more than the rest of you.  
And I will tell you that Judy didn't always like the pomp and 
circumstance of life as the spouse of a senior officer.  And I 
will tell you in all candor, that more than once, Judy told me 
that Tim was in the Navy, she was not.  (Laughter)  But I will 
tell you this: Judy LaFleur loved reaching out to Sailors and 
their families.  She is so generous.  She will do anything for 
people who need a hand.  And more than most anyone, she 
understood the responsibilities of the spouse of a senior 
officer in our military.  To take advantage of opportunities 
given.  To serve those who chose the lifestyle of service.  From 
junior to senior, holidays always found her house with some 
Sailors in it.  Judy, I know that Tim couldn't have done it 
without you.  And so to Judy and to Tim, this platform is loaded 
with stars and horsepower.  Secretary England, Walt Doran and I 
came here to show our greatest possible respect for everything 
that the two of you have done for our Navy.  And so, another 
chapter in the naval career of Terry Etnyre while Tim LaFleur's 
comes to a close.  

Terry, congratulations.  We've been shipmates twice before.  You 
know that I'm prone to be short on congratulations and long on 
expectations.  And I'll tell you that today is no different 
(laughter).  You've been carefully chosen to lead.  Build upon 
this sense of urgency, this buzz of transformation here in 
Coronado, ignited by the leadership and the imagination of Vice 
Admiral Tim LaFleur, to create the Navy of our dreams.  Our 
expectations are high and we wish you and Ingrid every possible 
success.  

To Tim and Judy, Patrick, your nation is grateful, deeply 
grateful to you.  And I deeply and very personally appreciate 
your service to our nation.  I close with one of my favorite 
thoughts in the form of a prayer.

May life's richest blessing be yours and we wish you fair winds 
and following seas and Godspeed.

Applause…..

And now it is my honor to introduce someone who knows a great 
deal about leadership.  About innovation, about business, about 
the principles and requirements of change.  His legacy as 
Secretary of the Navy will be bringing our Navy and Marine Corps 
closer together than we have ever been before in our history.  
He has made this team more ready than it has ever been in the 
history of our nation.  He came, he went, he came and now it's 
rumored that he is going to leave again.  We understand why they 
would want you.  He is a phenomenal leader, who is a living 
example of what service is all about and is providing us an 
incredible example of what living a life of service to the 
nation is about.  We are indeed fortunate to have him serving 
first as our 72nd and now as our 73rd Secretary of the Navy.  
Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome a great leader and 
my very personal friend, the Honorable Gordon England.

Applause…
                          -USN-