Les Aspin

Defense Secretary Les Aspin, in his first meeting with his Russian counterpart, on Saturday proposed conducting U.S.-Russian military exercises that would train troops of the former Cold War adversaries together for the first time for possible peacekeeping missions.

Defense Secretary Les Aspin, who flew to Europe on official business in a government jet last week, spent four of the last seven days vacationing with a female friend at a five-star hotel in Venice. In the meantime, his jet sat on the tarmac and 31 members of his traveling party cooled their heels in Italy at taxpayer expense. Aspin and his date paid for their own accommodations at the Danieli Hotel.

Defense Secretary Les Aspin declared "the end of the 'Star Wars' era" on Thursday, ordering a change in the name and the direction of the Pentagon missile-defense program that set out to make nuclear weapons "impotent and obsolete" a decade ago. After reviewing the Pentagon's Strategic Defense Initiative, Aspin said the program now will focus primarily on the deployment of ground-based systems like the Patriot missile to protect troops against short-range missiles.

Defense Secretary Les Aspin fired one Air Force general Friday and said he has lost "confidence" in two others who allegedly arranged a secret bailout for the McDonnell Douglas C-17 cargo jet program in 1990. All three generals, cited in a blistering memo by Aspin as exercising a "lack of judgment," are expected to resign shortly from active duty. In taking tough action, Aspin expressed intolerance for military leaders who protect weapons programs by suppressing damaging information.

Defense Secretary Les Aspin, taking what he called "historic steps" to integrate women more fully into the armed forces, Wednesday directed the military services to open ships and combat aircraft jobs to women and to explore new openings in a range of ground combat jobs from field artillery to combat-level military intelligence. Across the nation, military women cheered the decision and lined up to take their places on the front lines of the nation's defense forces.

Defense Secretary Les Aspin will order the military services to allow female pilots to fly combat missions as soon as it is can be done and ask Congress to lift legal restrictions that have barred women from serving on combat ships since 1947, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.

If I'm gay and in the military, and I keep my homosexuality a secret, I can continue to serve--and perhaps die for--my country? But, if I'm a heterosexual in the military, I can annoy, grope or make a general nuisance of myself to any member of the opposite sex and that's OK? Les Aspin should have had that pacemaker installed higher up. Nunn, on the other hand, is a prime candidate for heart implant. WOODY McBRIDE Manhattan Beach

Defense Secretary Les Aspin on Saturday called his first cut at Pentagon spending plans "a cautious budget" that seeks to save money for use in domestic priorities while protecting U.S. forces from becoming overmanned and undertrained. "This is a cautious budget on the weapons side. Very cautious," Aspin told reporters at his first Pentagon news conference, where he formally presented a proposed national defense budget of $263.4 billion for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

The Hon. Les Aspin, secretary of Defense, is certainly socking it to California and to the thousands of senior citizens in Laguna Hills Leisure World with the listing of closure of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. We can put up with the noise when it means defense for the U.S.A. But when it subjects us to commercial air flights, they are ruining our homes and health. This is not a world of peace and California needs air defense. MARJORIE B. FURNISH Laguna Hills