American Notes

MILITARY A Changing of the Guard

His academic rank (Ph.D. in political science from Princeton) earned him the right to use the title doctor in 1965. During a 42-year career in the U.S. Navy, however, William J. Crowe Jr. has always been addressed under another system of rank, and since 1973 Crowe's has been admiral. Last week President Reagan added still another title to the admiral's collection, nominating him as the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, effective Oct. 1. Crowe succeeds General John Vessey Jr., 63, who chose to retire nine months before the completion of his second two-year term.

To some extent the chairman's job is what its occupant chooses to make of it, and few doubt that the Kentucky-born Crowe, 60, will choose an activist role. Colleagues know him as an able commander who exercises shrewd political and military judgment. He brings to his new post unusually broad experience, having served as commander in chief of the Allied Forces in Southern Europe from 1980 to 1983 and as commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command since then. Says Robert Komer, a former Under Secretary of Defense: "Crowe is a broad-gauged guy, a truly independent thinker. He is certain to put his imprint on this job." AGRICULTURE A $6 Million Bash

Summertime is watermelon time, but last week California farmers watched helplessly as more than 1 million melons were crushed, bashed and otherwise dumped. Parts of the crop had been contaminated by pesticide, and nearly 300 people in California, Oregon, Alaska, Washington and Idaho fell ill after eating the tainted fruit. The estimated loss to the melon industry: $6 million.

The poisonings were apparently caused by aldicarb, a pesticide marketed by Union Carbide under the trade name Temik. Aldicarb effectively protects soybeans, potatoes, cotton, sugar beets and citrus fruits, but is banned for use with watermelon. Some California farmers contend that their melons picked up the chemical from residues in fields where it had been applied to other crops years ago. Union Carbide insists, however, that its tests show aldicarb degrades to safe levels within 180 days. California Department of Food and Agriculture Director Clare Berryhill voiced "strong suspicions" that some farmers had knowingly misused the pesticide and added, "I'm going to use all the police powers I have to put them away. We are going to nail them to the cross." FOREIGN AID A Get-Tough House Package

Republicans on Capitol Hill oppose so many foreign aid programs as wasteful giveaways that Congress has been unable to pass an overall assistance package since 1981. Instead, aid programs have been approved piecemeal, usually as riders on unrelated bills. Last week, however, the House handily passed a $12.6 billion foreign aid bill, with strong Republican support. Reason: the bill was studded with G.O.P.-sponsored amendments aimed at turning up the heat on Communist and other far-leftist regimes around the world.

The House bill, which must be meshed with a similar measure passed by the Senate in May, would end a nine-year-old ban on U.S. aid to rebels fighting the Marxist government of Angola. It provides funds for anti-Communist insurgents in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan and Vietnamese-occupied Kampuchea. The legislation would also cut off aid to the leftist regime in Mozambique unless that country expels most foreign military advisers. Though President Reagan agrees with most of the get-tough amendments, he may veto the bill as a whole, principally because it does not provide all of the military assistance that he requested for U.S. allies. PRISON The Ordeal of Poor Walter Wood

Poor Walter J. Wood. There he was in the Utah State Prison last August, minding his own business as he served out a life sentence for the first-degree murder of a Lutheran minister in 1978, when two other cons forced him--yes, forced him--to participate in a prison break. In the course of his eight hours of unwilling freedom, contends the 47-year-old killer, "I was forced to swim several irrigation canals, attempted to swim a raging Jordan River, and exposed myself to innumerable bites by many insects." Adds Wood: "At one point I heard a volley of shotgun blasts, and this completed my anxiety." Wood, who was recaptured about two miles from prison, is now demanding recompense for his ordeal. He has filed a $2 million federal lawsuit in Salt Lake City for damages suffered during his escape.

Ken Shulsen, Utah prison warden at the time of the break-out, dismisses Wood's story, noting that his route out of prison twice brought him into "face-to-face contact with prison staff," whom he could easily have alerted. As for that raging river, "it is not the Mississippi in any sense," says Shulsen. Not by a long shot. The Jordan is all of 40 feet wide. GRADUATION A Middy Keeps His Chin Up

A distance of one foot may not seem like much, but that was the margin between Midshipman Jay Linder, 22, and his graduation from Annapolis. Linder was able to complete only five of the required six pull-ups (chin-ups with palms facing out) during his final physical-fitness exam. The midshipman had injured his shoulder last October while playing fieldball, a rugby-like Academy diversion, and fell out of shape during his recuperation. Though sympathetic, the Naval Academy's academic board recommended Linder's separation from the school and denial of a commission.

Linder, however, refused to give up. He appealed and was granted six weeks to get himself into shape. Spending up to six hours a day in intense physical therapy, the midshipman lifted weights, swam, ran and performed calisthenics. When Linder's grace period ended last week, he managed not six but seven pull-ups, earning his diploma and a commission as an ensign on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Constellation. Another bonus: the right to stage his wedding this week to Julia Himmighoefer of Annapolis in the Academy chapel.