John Edward "Ted" Gordon (April 25, 1941 - January 22, 2023) was a retired

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

rear admiral who served as

Judge Advocate General of the Navy The Judge Advocate General of the Navy (JAG) is the highest-ranking uniformed lawyer in the United States Department of the Navy. The Judge Advocate General is the principal advisor to the Secretary of the Navy and the Chief of Naval Operations o ...

from 1990 until 1992.

Naval career

Raised in

Kingston, Pennsylvania Kingston is a borough in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located on the western bank of the Susquehanna River opposite the city of Wilkes-Barre. Kingston was first settled in the early 1770s; it was incorporated as a borough in ...

, Gordon was educated at the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...

and joined the

upon his graduation in 1964. During the 1960s, he was posted on two different combatant ships, which included service during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

. He later served as a

contracting officer A Contracting Officer ( KO or CO ) is a person who can bind the Federal Government of the United States to a contract which is greater in value than the federal micro-purchase threshold ($10,000). This is limited to the scope of authority delegated ...

at the

Philadelphia Naval Shipyard The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard was an important naval shipyard of the United States for almost two centuries. Philadelphia's original navy yard, begun in 1776 on Front Street and Federal Street in what is now the Pennsport section of the ci ...

. Gordon attended the

Temple University School of Law The Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law is the law school of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1895 and enrolls about 530 students. Student body Admission for fall 2019 entering class was highly comp ...

, receiving his Juris Doctor in 1973. He then joined the

Judge Advocate General's Corps, U.S. Navy The Judge Advocate General's Corps, also known as the "JAG Corps" or "JAG", is the legal arm of the United States Navy. Today, the corps consists of a worldwide organization of more than 730 commissioned officers serving as judge advocates, 30 Lim ...

, in which capacity he held several military justice positions, including deputy officer in charge of the Philadelphia Navy Legal Service Office and as special court martial judge. Gordon next served as Deputy Navy Chief of Legislative Affairs ( Senate). In the 1980s, he served for over four years under

United States Secretary of the Navy The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense. By law, the se ...

John Lehman John Francis Lehman Jr. (born September 14, 1942) is an American private equity investor and writer who served as Secretary of the Navy (1981–1987) in the Ronald Reagan administration where he promoted the creation of a 600-ship Navy. From 2 ...

as special assistant for legal and legislative affairs. In 1986,

United States Secretary of Defense The United States secretary of defense (SecDef) is the head of the United States Department of Defense, the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces, and is a high ranking member of the federal cabinet. DoDD 5100.1: Enclosure 2: a The ...

Caspar Weinberger Caspar Willard Weinberger (August 18, 1917 – March 28, 2006) was an American statesman and businessman. As a prominent Republican, he served in a variety of state and federal positions for three decades, including chairman of the Californ ...

named Gordon Deputy

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs, or ASD(LA), is the head of the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs, responsible for providing support to the Secretary of Defense (SecDef) in his/her dealings with ...

, with Gordon being promoted to

flag rank A flag officer is a commissioned officer in a nation's armed forces senior enough to be entitled to fly a flag to mark the position from which the officer exercises command. The term is used differently in different countries: *In many countries ...

. In 1987, he became commander of the Naval Security Investigative Command (NSIC). In this capacity, he oversaw the work of the

Naval Investigative Service The United States Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is the primary law enforcement agency of the U.S. Department of the Navy. Its primary function is to investigate criminal activities involving the Navy and Marine Corps, though it ...

(NIS), the

United States Department of the Navy The United States Department of the Navy (DoN) is one of the three military departments within the Department of Defense of the United States of America. It was established by an Act of Congress on 30 April 1798, at the urging of Secretary o ...

Security Program, and the

Office of Naval Intelligence The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) is the military intelligence agency of the United States Navy. Established in 1882 primarily to advance the Navy's modernization efforts, it is the oldest member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and serve ...

(ONI). While Commander of NSIC, Gordon was concurrently Director of NIS and Assistant Director of ONI for Counterintelligence. During his time as Commander of NSIC, Gordon was responsible for the navy's response to Operation Ill Wind, and oversaw the prosecution of Clayton J. Lonetree, a member of the

Marine Corps Security Guard A Marine Security Guard (MSG), also known as a Marine Embassy Guard, is a member of the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group (formerly Marine Security Guard Battalion), a brigade-sized organization of the United States Marine Corps (USMC) whose de ...

who allowed a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

spy access to the Embassy of the United States in Moscow. In 1989, Gordon became Deputy

and commander of the Naval Legal Service Command. He became Judge Advocate General of the Navy in 1990. The

Tailhook scandal The Tailhook scandal was a military scandal in which United States Navy and U.S. Marine Corps aviation officers were alleged to have sexually assaulted up to 83 women and seven men, or otherwise engaged in "improper and indecent" conduct at t ...

broke in the wake of the 35th Annual Meeting of the

Tailhook Association The Tailhook Association is a U.S.-based non-profit fraternal organization supporting the interests of sea-based aviation, with emphasis on aircraft carriers. The word tailhook refers to the hook underneath the tail of the aircraft that catches the ...

, held at the

Las Vegas Hilton The Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino is a hotel, casino, and timeshare resort in Winchester, Nevada. Located near the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip, it is owned by Westgate Resorts. It opened in 1969 as the International Hotel, and wa ...

September 8–12, 1991. Over the course of this weekend, more than 100 Navy and

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

aviation officers sexually assaulted 87 women and seven men, or otherwise engaged in "improper and indecent" conduct. In response to media reports about this meeting, on October 29, 1991, the Department of the Navy terminated all ties to the Tailhook Association, launching an investigation led by Rear Admiral Gordon and Rear Admiral

Duvall Williams Duvall McClellan "Mac" Williams, Jr. (born 6 February 1943) is a retired rear admiral of the United States Navy who was a commander of the United States Naval Investigative Service. His tenure included the time of the Tailhook scandal; he and R ...

, director of the

. Williams' initial report blamed the incident primarily on the behavior of low-ranking enlisted men. However, when Williams subsequently made sexist remarks in the presence of Barbara S. Pope,

Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) The Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) (abbreviated as ASN M&RA) is a civilian office in the United States Department of the Navy. The Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) reports to the Under ...

, Pope went to

Henry L. Garrett III Henry Lawrence Garrett III (born June 24, 1939) served as the 68th Secretary of the Navy from May 15, 1989, to June 26, 1992, in the administration of George H. W. Bush. Before leading the Department of the Navy, he served as General Counsel of th ...

and demanded that he re-open the investigation.Melissa Healy, "Pentagon Blasts Tailhook Probe, Two Admirals Resign," ''Los Angeles Times'', Sept. 25, 1992
/ref> As a result, Garrett re-opened the investigation under Derek J. Vander Schaaf, the Inspector General of the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national sec ...

. In September 1992, Acting Secretary of the Navy

Sean O'Keefe Sean Charles O'Keefe (born January 27, 1956) is a university professor at Syracuse University Maxwell School, former chairman of Airbus Group, Inc., former Secretary of the Navy, former Administrator of NASA, and former chancellor of Louisiana ...

revealed the contents of Vander Schaaf's investigation. Vander Schaaf concluded that the initial investigation had been a coverup more concerned with protecting the reputation of the navy than with discovering the role of high-ranking officers in the scandal. Gordon criticized Vander Schaaf's report as "flawed and factually incorrect" and continued to maintain that the initial investigation had been thorough. Gordon retired from the US Navy with full honors.

Later life

After leaving the navy, Gordon took a job at

Litton Industries Litton Industries was a large defense contractor in the United States named after inventor Charles Litton Sr. During the 1960s, the company began acquiring many unrelated firms and became one of the largest conglomerates in the United States. A ...

as Vice President for

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

Operations, overseeing the company's interactions with all branches of government. He left Litton in 2001, joining Alliant Techsystems as Vice President (Washington Operations). He retired from Alliant in 2007. From 2007, he was a senior fellow at the

Potomac Institute for Policy Studies The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies is an independent, 501(c)(3), not-for-profit public policy research institute located in Arlington, Virginia. The institute was founded in , shortly after the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment ...

, where he sat on the

board of regents In the United States, a board often governs institutions of higher education, including private universities, state universities, and community colleges. In each US state, such boards may govern either the state university system, individual c ...

Gordon died on 22 January 2023 in

Trappe, Maryland Trappe is a town in Talbot County, Maryland, United States. The population was 1,077 at the 2010 census. It is the site of one of the largest mixed-use developments on the U.S. East Coast called Trappe East or "Lakeside" with controversy arising ...

, and was buried at

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...

References

External links

Profile from the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, John E. 1941 births 2023 deaths People from Kingston, Pennsylvania United States Naval Academy alumni United States Navy personnel of the Vietnam War Temple University Beasley School of Law alumni United States Navy rear admirals Judge Advocates General of the United States Navy Recipients of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal Recipients of the Legion of Merit Military personnel from Pennsylvania