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Edited on Thu Dec-18-08 03:25 PM by babylonsister
Dennis C. Blair
Admiral Dennis C. Blair
Place of birth Kittery, Maine
Allegiance United States of America
Service/branch United States Navy
Years of service 1968-2002
Rank Admiral
Commands held Pacific Command
Awards Defense Distinguished Service Medal (4)
Other work President, Institute for Defense Analyses
Dennis Cutler Blair (born 1947) is the John M. Shalikashvili Chair in National Security Studies at The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) <1> and the General of the Army Omar N. Bradley Chair of Strategic Leadership at Dickinson College <2> and the U.S. Army War College <3>. He is the immediate past President of the Institute for Defense Analyses, a U.S. Government think-tank in the Washington D.C. area focused on national security.
Blair was born in Kittery, Maine in 1946, and was a 6th generation naval officer. He attended St. Andrew's School (1964) and, as a classmate of Oliver North and James H. Webb, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1968. Following his graduation from the Naval Academy, he started his career with an assignment aboard the guided missile destroyer, USS Tattnall, followed by a Rhodes Scholarship, majoring in Russian studies at Oxford University, during the same time future president Bill Clinton studied there. He served as a White House Fellow from 1975 to 1976 with Wesley Clark and Marshall Carter, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange.
His last job in the military was Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Pacific Command, the highest ranking officer over all U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific region. Previously, he was Director of the Joint Staff in the Office of the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff and served in budget and policy positions on several major Navy staffs, and the National Security Council staff. He was also the first Associate Director of Central Intelligence for Military Support. He retired from the United States Navy in 2002.
His membership on the board of directors of EDO Corporation, a subcontractor for the F-22 Raptor fighter program, and ownership of its stock was raised as a potential conflict of interest after the IDA issued a study that endorsed a three-year contract for the program. Blair told the Washington Post, "My review was not affected at all by my association with EDO Corp., and the report was a good one." He originally chose not to recuse himself because he claimed his link to EDO was not of sufficient "scale" to require it, but subsequently resigned from the EDO board to avoid any misperceptions.
However on Wednesday, December 20, 2006 the Washington Post reported that the US Department of Defense Inspector General's investigation into the affair found Blair had certainly violated IDA's Conflict of Interest rules but did not influence the result of IDA's study. Blair observed, "with all due respect to the Inspector General I find it hard to understand how I could be criticized for violating conflict of interest standards when I didn't have any influence on the study." <4>
His decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal with three oak leaf clusters, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal and National Defense Service Medal with one star as well as numerous other campaign and service awards. He has been decorated by the governments of Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, Thailand and Taiwan.<4>
Blair reportedly disobeyed orders from the Clinton Administration in 1999 during the 1999 East Timorese crisis, when he was Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Pacific Command. Amid growing international concern over violence against the independence movement in Indonesian-occupied East Timor, Blair was reportedly ordered by the Clinton administration to meet with General Wiranto, the commander of the Indonesian military, and to tell him to shut down the pro-Indonesia militia. Blair reportedly failed to deliver the message during his meeting with Wiranto, and instead gave Wiranto an offer of military assistance and a personal invitation to be Blair's guest in Hawaii.<5>
Blair is somewhat renowned in U.S. Naval circles for attempting to water ski behind his Destroyer when he was the Skipper.<6> :spray:
The New York Times reported in 2008 that Blair is a candidate for Director of National Intelligence in the Obama administration.<7> The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network is opposing his potential nomination, because of his actions during the East Timor crisis. [8
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