Sunup

Abraham Chasanow, an $8,360-a-year employee of the Navy Hydrographic Office just outside Washington, had lived under the shadow of a doubt ever since July 29, 1953, when he was suspended from his job. One security board refused to believe the charge that he was a Communist sympathizer. A higher board reversed the ruling and ordered him fired. When the Chasanow case broke into print (TIME, May 10), Assistant Secretary of the Navy James H. Smith Jr. ordered the case reopened.

Last week Smith called a press conference and made a handsome apology to Chasanow, restoring him to duty with back pay. A Navy statement said: "The pattern of Mr. Chasanow's life portrays an above-average loyal American citizen." The Navy, Smith said, had been a "little naive" in swallowing everything that poison-tongue informants had said about Chasanow, who had made enemies (as well as scores of friends) in the intense local politics of Greenbelt, Md., where he lives. Said Chasanow: "It seems like I woke up from a bad dream. The sun is shining. The birds are singing. The flowers are blooming."

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