Nation IN BRIEF : MARYLAND : Kelso Hands Over His Navy Command

Adm. Frank B. Kelso formally stepped down as the Navy’s top officer, ending a career tarnished by the Tailhook scandal. Adm. Jeremy M. Boorda took charge after a change of command ceremony at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Boorda referred to the Tailhook sexual abuse scandal indirectly when he pledged to continue to push the Navy down the road toward “real, total, equal opportunity. . . . Let me say, and there has been a lot of talk about this, Frank Kelso brought us a long way along that road,” Boorda said. The Senate had approved Kelso’s retirement, after 38 years in the Navy, at his current rank, overriding a motion by all seven women senators that he be demoted and have his pension cut because of the Tailhook scandal.