Money has become so tight at the Pentagon that the nation’s top military officer has decided he doesn’t need a formal oil portrait, costing tens of thousands of dollars, to commemorate his tenure. Instead, Admiral Mike Mullen is going to basically photocopy the portrait already done of him in his prior job as chief of naval operations. Then he’s going to leave that fake with the Navy, and take the original oil to hang in the Pentagon’s E-ring alongside those of his 16 predecessors as chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Pentagon hallways are filled with hand-carved, gold-framed, lush-looking oils dating back to the Revolutionary War. Today there’s a whole bidding process that’s required for such artwork. Mullen’s forward-leaning staff, anticipating their boss’s retirement next year, issued a solicitation in July seeking an artist to portray the four-star admiral. They were seeking someone who has done such work with Fortune 500 pooh-bahs and with “the ability to travel to the Pentagon for live sittings.”
But Mullen squashed the deal when he learned of it, his spokesman said Tuesday. “He decided that it would be inappropriate in these lean economic times for him to have another portrait painted,” Navy Capt. John Kirby says, “especially since he just recently had one completed at the end of his tour as CNO.” Mullen’s office published the formal cancellation order Monday. “There is no longer a need for this requirement,” it says. Requirements — usually involving weapons capabilities — are holy writ inside the Pentagon. Scrapping them is rarely done. Wonder if it’s contagious?
