COMINCH for Air?

"COMINCH" corridor, on the second "deck" forward of the Navy Building in Washington, leads to the austere office of the fleet Commander in Chief, Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King. Down this formidable channel, one day recently, steamed Vice-Admiral Aubrey Fitch. He bore with him a topside-shaking plan.

The plan was to create a new office of Deputy Commander in Chief for Air, roughly parallel to the job which five-star General Henry H. Arnold holds down in the War Department. Navy airmen would at last have some of the prestige to which they believe they are entitled.

Ernie King was opposed. It would take a hefty task force to move him (such as Navy Secretary Forrestal and President Truman combined), but such a task force was being assembled. One sparkplug of it was Assistant Secretary Artemus L. ("Di") Gates, who last week was boosted to Under Secretary, a spot in which he can make his voice heard. A thrice-decorated World War I pilot, "Di" Gates is a red-hot airman.

Man for the Job. One obvious candidate for the new big air job would be wizened, frail-looking 58-year-old Vice-Admiral Marc A. Mitscher, a naval aviator since 1915, pilot of the NC1 on the first Navy transatlantic flight in 1919, commander of the carrier Hornet, which launched the Doolittle raiders against Tokyo, best known as the boss of famed Task Force 58 which has swept the Pacific from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo.

Last week "Pete" Mitscher came home from the Okinawa campaign. He was "embarrassed" by rumors that he had been killed; he was tired but very much alive. He had fought long & hard for the past five months in the Pacific.

Now he was due for a rest. After that, he was due for the shore-based post now held by Aubrey Fitch: Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Air, little more than an administrative post--unless he got the new job which airmen hoped he would.

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