Admiral Arleigh Burke

One of the military's most colorful figures, and the last surviving WW II naval commander, ``31-Knot Burke'' was a destroyer captain in the Solomons campaign, served as Admiral Marc Mitscher's chief of staff in the final two years of the war and, in 1955, was chosen over 91 senior admirals as Chief of Naval Operations. Retiring after four decades of active service in 1961, Burke became co-founder and director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies at Georgetown University. Potter, former chairman of naval history at the U.S. Naval Academy, has written an entertaining biography of a talented and resourceful officer who was instrumental in the development of the missile-armed, nuclear-propelled navy. Of particular interest is Potter's clarifying account of the controversy over unification of the armed services in the late 1940s and Burke's role in the so-called ``Revolt of the Admirals.'' Photos. (Apr.)