Pacific Fleet's Adm. Clemins going ashore

After 33 years of Navy service, Adm. Archie Clemins, commander in chiefof the Pacific Fleet, plans to move far from the sea after he retires nextmonth in a ceremony on the battleship USS Missouri in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Clemins said he plans to retire to Boise, Idaho, because he wants tomove to a location west of the Rocky Mountains that has little militarypresence so that he and his wife, Marilyn, could have a "clean break"' fromtheir Navy tours.

Clemins is the guiding spirit behind the Navy's Information Technologyfor the 21st Century. IT-21 represents a dramatic shift from reliance onNavy standard IT systems, which took years to develop and deploy, to a commercialarchitecture capable of being quickly upgraded.

In an end-of-tour interview at the Pentagon this month, Clemins expressedquiet satisfaction with the changes IT-21 has brought but said, "I wishwe could have gone faster [with shipboard installations]."

Clemins plans a deliberate hiatus from the most pressing IT issue facinggovernment and the private sector: the Year 2000 problem. However, the worldwideeffects of the Year 2000 problem will matter little to Clemins and his wife.

They plan to spend Dec. 29 to Jan. 9 coping with the elements in a wintersurvival course conducted by the National Outdoor Leadership School in TargheeNational Forest on the Idaho/Montana border.

"We're going to be living in yurts and developing different kinds ofskills," he said. "We're both outdoor people, and my wife wanted to do it."

Clemins will not say whether he has left IT permanently behind. He plansto return to work, saying he would "like to run something that deals withproducts...something interesting; size is not important."

But, putting first things first, rest, relaxation and testing himselfin a different environment carry top priority for the career submariner.