"You can take this job and shove it.  It seems that others have
 also asked for retirement. Shades of General William Nitchell. Jim"
 Reuter
     WASHINGTON (July 28) - The U.S. Air Force chief of staff, Gen.
 Ronald Fogleman, has submitted his resignation ahead of a ruling
 on whether to punish one or more of his subordinates for security
 lapses that led to the death of 19 U.S. airmen in a guerrilla bomb-
 ing in Saudi Arabia last year, Pentagon officials said Monday.
     Air Force officials said Fogleman, a member of the Joint Chiefs
 of Staff, had requested early retirement as soon as possible but no
 later than September 1.
    Fogleman, 55, reportedly opposed punishing any Air Force officers
 for failing to prevent the June 25, 1996, truck bombing of Khobar
 Towers, the barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, in which 19 U.S.
 airmen were killed.
     He submitted his resignation in a handwritten note to Air Force
 Secretary Sheila Widnall, a civilian, Air Force officials said. They
 said they did not know immediately whether she had accepted it.
     Fogleman, a rugby-playing former fighter pilot, was appointed to
 the Air Force's top uniformed job in 1994. He would be the first Air
 Force chief of staff to step down voluntarily before completing his
 scheduled four-year term.
     The Air Force said it was preparing a formal statement. Defense
 Secretary William Cohen was expected to announce a decision this
 week on whether to hold one or more Air Force officers responsible
 for security lapses at Khobar Towers that left U.S. forces vulner-
 able to attack.
    "I request I be retired from active duty at the earliest possible
 date, but not later than Sept. 1, 1997 ....," Cable News Network
 quoted his note as saying.
     CNN also quoted Fogleman from an off-camera interview as having
 said that he wanted to quit now to avoid appearing to try to influ-
 ence Cohen on assigning blame for security lapses.
     "When I took this job it was a four year-term, not a sentence. I
 said I would know when the time to go had come. I feel I have accom-
 plished everything I can and it's time for me to step aside," he
 told CNN.
     CNN's military affairs correspondent, who conducted the inter-
 view, said: "He wants to send a message, though, that he thinks
 military commanders in the field should be held accountable when
 they've done something wrong. But he also feels that they should be
 backed up when they've done the right thing. And he thinks that the
 Air Force officers there (in Saudi Arabia) did everything they
 reasonably could."
     A Pentagon task force found last September that commanders of
 U.S. Air Operations in Saudi Arabia at the time of the bombing "did
 not take all measures possible to protect the forces at Khobar
 Towers."
     The task force, headed by retired Army Gen. Wayne Downing,
 recommended possible punitive action be considered by the chain of
 command, ultimately by the defense secretary.
     The Air Force said in January it had delayed the promotion to
 major general of Brig. Gen. Terryl Schwalier, who had overall com-
 mand of U.S. air operations in Saudi Arabia, pending final action
 in the controversy.
     CNN said Fogleman held that no Air Force officers should be
 punished and that Schwalier should be promoted and given his second
 general's star. Before the promotion was delayed over Khobar respon-
 sibility, Schwalier had been nominated by President Clinton and
 confirmed by the Senate for the promotion.
 14:24 07-28-97
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