WASHINGTON -- CIA Director Michael V. Hayden yesterday let the leaders of the nation's military and intelligence communities in on a little secret.

He's still a Pittsburgher.

Gen. Hayden, 63, a North Side native and graduate of Duquesne University, was honored by dignitaries from the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency in a ceremony saluting his retirement after nearly 40 years with the Air Force.

"I still carry memories of a place that continues to shape who I am more than anything else," Gen. Hayden said in reflective remarks that began and ended with recollections of his hometown. "I left Pittsburgh 39 years ago, but the city has never left me. I hope that I've lived up to the ethic that the immortal war correspondent Ernie Pyle identified with the city after visiting Pittsburgh just before World War II: 'This place just goes to work.' "

Gen. Hayden will continue to work as director of the CIA. But now, as he noted during the ceremony at Bolling Air Force Base, he will wear a business suit instead of the uniform of a four-star general.

President Bush's selection of Gen. Hayden to take command at the CIA in May 2006 generated debate at the time because some members of Congress perceived the potential for conflict in the appointment of a member of the military as head of the nation's civilian intelligence operation. During his confirmation hearings, some suggested he should resign from the military before becoming CIA director.

But Gen. Hayden, who had served as director of the National Security Agency since 1999, won approval and has championed improved coordination among America's defense and intelligence communities.

Still, there has been controversy. Gen. Hayden has defended the interception of civilian telephone calls without court-approved wiretaps and revealed that videotapes of interrogations of al-Qaida operatives, three of whom were subjected to "waterboarding," were destroyed during the term of his predecessor, Porter J. Goss.

Among the more than 200 family members, friends and government officers attending yesterday's ceremony were former CIA Director George Tenet, former National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, a longtime friend of Gen. Hayden, presided over the ceremony, hailing the general as a man who is "uniquely qualified" to lead the intelligence community in the 21st century.

"Wherever Gen. Hayden has been in government, we have seen within his orbit a shift away from inefficiencies and turf wars that too often plague government intelligence efforts," Mr. Gates said.

Gen. Hayden was accompanied by his wife, Jeanine, and other family members, some of whom, including his father and brother, still live in the Pittsburgh area.

"It's going to be hard to hang up this uniform. Fundamentally, I was an airman first," said Gen. Hayden, who attended North Catholic High School and then Duquesne University, where he joined the Air Force ROTC in 1963.

"There were very practical reasons why I joined the Air Force ROTC at Duquesne," he said. "It was mandatory."

Gen. Hayden's recounting of his Pittsburgh roots included mention of the cab he drove, the hairbrushes he sold door-to-door, and the youth football team at St. Peter's Grade School on the North Side, which he coached to a division title.

"I was not, however, noticed by the Steelers," he said. "So I sealed the deal with the Air Force."

During Gen. Hayden's time as a serviceman and a spy, he has seen military operations evolve from mass bombings in Vietnam to modern precision airstrikes that can target an individual.

"The need for precision intelligence has risen in direct relationship with the need for precision operations," he said.

Gen. Hayden's father, Harry Hayden Jr., and his brother, Harry Hayden III, praised him as a man who loved his country and was proud to serve it. It was the senior Hayden, 88, a former welder and World War II veteran living in Ross, who inspired the general's military career.

The younger Hayden, however, said sometimes the politics of his brother's job can be frustrating to watch.

"One of the hardest jobs of that position is dealing with the political aspects of it," said Mr. Hayden, 46, a construction worker living in West View.

"You want to get in the car and drive down here and take care of business. But he takes it all in stride."