Newest Sub, Oldest Sailor

For some of the old salts gathered last week in Groton, Conn., to witness the commissioning of the U.S.S. Ohio, the U.S.'s first Trident nuclear-powered submarine, the occasion was tinged with sadness. Standing before them was the frail but still forceful Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, the man most responsible for the Navy's nuclear fleet. Only days before, Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, 39, had recommended that Rickover, 81, now Deputy Commander of the Navy's Sea Systems Command, retire after 59 years of active duty.

It was not the first time the Pentagon brass had tried to ease Rickover into retirement. But he has been able to beat back every attempt by marshaling the support of powerful friends in Washington. When he turned 64, the Navy exempted him from mandatory retirement, and since then Presidents have given him a series of two-year extensions on active duty.

Rickover is legendary for his tart, occasionally profane testimony on Capitol Hill, and critics argue that someone younger and less irascible should serve as the Navy's chief nuclear officer. He has had rancorous relations with General Dynamics' Electric Boat Division, the builder of the Tridents, charging the manufacturer with needless delays and outrageous cost overruns (now $420 million over the original estimate of $780 million in 1974). Says one Pentagon source: "He's gone through several Secretaries of the Navy and several Secretaries of Defense and has ignored most of them."

Though some of Rickover's aging defenders have left Congress in recent years, he doubtless hoped for a sympathetic ruling from President Reagan, at 70 no spring chicken himself. Asked about Rickover, Reagan reminded reporters that William Gladstone was Britain's Prime Minister at 83. But at week's end White House sources said Reagan had decided that Rickover should retire. Apparently to soften the blow to the proud sailor, Reagan plans to ask him to serve as a White House adviser on nuclear energy.

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