Admiral (Ret, USN)

Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet (1985-1987)

Ace Lyons was deputy Chief of Naval Operations in October 1983 when the Islamic Republic of Iran murdered 241 U.S. Marines in Beirut. Under his orders, U.S. Navy strike aircraft were “gassed and armed” on flight deck of a U.S. carrier in the Mediterranean, until Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger pulled the plug. I was in Lebanon at the time, and saw French fighter jets streak over head to hit Hezbollah in Baalbek – an ineffective strike, in part because the U.S. failed to participate. Ace later testified on behalf of surviving Marines and their families in a U.S. court about a “gold-plated intercept he uncovered after the attack in which the Iranian regime gave the orders to its terrorist proxies to conduct the attack. I devoted an entire chapter to this remarkable story – one of our first failures in the long shadow war against the Islamic Republic of Iran – in Countdown to Crisis.

I am proud to be endorsed by Admiral Lyons and, if elected, will ensure that we keep up the pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran and end the appeasement policies that are bringing us ever closer to war.

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