General Discussion

Our friend's father was Secretary of the Navy right around the time that Nixon was up to his eyeballs in the Watergate corruption scandal. Nixon ordered Jim Schlesinger, Secretary of Defense at the time, to fire our friend's father (his name was Bud Zumwalt), because Bud Zumwalt had committed the cardinal sin of allowing women and People of Color to become officers in the Navy. Schlesinger knew that Bud Zumwalt was wildly popular with the rank and file, and that such a move would go down very badly with them. So he managed to put it off until the ink was dry on Nixon's resignation, and he had been carted back off to San Clemente. He never did end up firing him. Bud Zumwalt left of his own accord later on.