Good riddance…

At least the ‘new’ acting Navy secretary has actually served on a carrier…

Modly did his minimum payback for going to the USNA, seven years. His ‘career’ path was one tour as a pilot, then instructor at the Air Force Academy. In other words, he never got past lieutenant…

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly has resigned, a U.S. official told Fox News on Tuesday, one day after Modly apologized for suggesting the ousted commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt was either “too naïve or too stupid” — or perhaps even deliberately insubordinate — over his handling of the ship’s coronavirus outbreak.

Full article, HERE.

Capt Crozier DID commit the cardinal sin of going out of channels, which would have gotten him relieved anyway, but this was badly handled by Modly, much less his flying out to the TR and haranguing the crew, THAT was unbelievably stupid on his part.

At least McPherson, the new Acting is a retired Naval Office, JAG, but he did at least serve on ships! Sigh…

Comments

Good riddance… — 26 Comments

  1. JAG isn’t really Navy (or any of the services), despite the best efforts of that idiotic television show to claim otherwise.

    They’re just lawyers in uniform. They are occasionally useful, in the same way that leeches and maggots are occasionally useful.

  2. Something stinks, NFO. I live in Canada so forgive my ignorance. But:

    It doesn’t make sense to me that a senior officer would blow off a full blown carrier captain with legitimate concerns. When a guy like that tells you he can’t do his job, that means you can’t do yours and the issue goes upstairs if you both are stumped.

    It doesn’t make sense that the captain would go outside channels. Usually in cases like this, the subordinate officer will go over the head of his superior to get resolution, won’t he? While going over the head of your boss is still frowned on – the mess stays in house and away from the public. Or am I mistaken on that?

    The politicos are confusing me too. Supposedly the Donks are howling for this guy’s scalp. The pattern I’ve seen is that usually, when REMFs are running amok… the Donks are in it with them like dirty shirts. And Trump was said to be reluctant…? Trump is no friend of brass hat railroaders and carpet baggers. Didn’t he just recently intercede on behalf of a SEAL that was getting shafted by the admiralty?

    Finally, the players are all retiring with grace and honour. Given the nature of the thing, one of the parties should be in court facing charges, and the paid actors we have for leaders should be jostling with each other to pose for the cameras with the bad guy’s scalp.

    Unless I’m missing something this whole thing stinks to high heaven. I think there is more going on here.

  3. What to me is saddest about the whole thing is that Captain Crozier’s actions, combined with Modly’s, have severely damaged the combat effectiveness of a major unit. By leaking/sending/whatever a message which basically said “I’m scared” to the media, the commander of the carrier implied that in the event of a real emergency — such as getting shot at — the ship was going to turn tail and run. Not too good. It will take a really good captain months to get her back up to something resembling speed — and probably a general shakeup of the crew, or at least the officers — which won’t be good for any of them. I’ve seen it happen.

    The acting secretary who got canned — justifiably — was no better nor worse than the vast majority of people who fail to make sure the brain is in gear before engaging their mouths. They are all over the world and the media today, and all one can do is ignore them — or make examples of them on occasion.

    And one other thought: I disagree with @Glenfilthie on JAGs. I’m no friend of lawyers, believe me, though they are occasionally downright handy. However, the two current JAGs I know personally are both Marines (one special ops, one helicopters), both have three tours downrange (and the decorations to go with), and both put themselves through law school while doing it, to serve their fellow Marines. Which they do.

    • Not all JAGs are as well qualified with service experience as the two you know personally. I know of one who is an SJW and publicly stated that she (and the US Navy) hate their commander in chief, President Trump.

  4. My mistake, Glenfilthie. It was McChuck’s comment on JAGs I was thinking of. Apologies. What was that about making sure the brain is in gear? Where’s my coffee?

    • No prob, Ian.

      But we can fight about that too, maybe? One of the lawyers I know quit and went to work at the gun shop as a clerk. He was an intelligent man and a successful lawyer, but had to quit. Contrary to Hollywood those people aren’t in court to arrive at justice, they are there to win cases. If you’re client was a liar, a cheat and a thief – or worse, you still had to use any means possible to get him off. If your client was a harlot divorcing her husband and trying to loot him into poverty through alimony, your job was to help her do it by any means possible, and rack up as many billable hours in the process.

      Surely that must apply must apply to the jags right?

      (And don’t anyone believe the rotten things WL Emery says about me?).

  5. What I would truly like to know is just how these men got to the positions they held. If they’re as incompetent and fatheaded as the one incident we know about indicates, why were they promoted?

    • I’m sure their being promoted has something to do with the Lightbringer and his policies… SMDH

    • The safe answer is Obama. He merits criticism, and it would be surprising if his actions had zero impact.

      More systemic issues with the officer corps, should they exist, would not be 100% safe for anyone who wants to work with those from the officer corps to publicly discuss. Not being back-stabbed if they do not have control over the selection of who they may work with, and for liability reasons if they do have influence over hiring and firing.

      Everything that goes into officer recruitment, retention, and promotion is a compromise between political goals. If the assumptions behind a compromise do not hold, and the factions have intractable differences, do not expect to be able to force a new working compromise.

      If there are wider issues, my philosophy of effectiveness and profit leads me away from trying to fix them, and towards ‘if x cannot be trusted, what can be done to achieve y anyways’. That would not be easily solved here, but the other seems more difficult, and even less what I absolutely have to fix.

    • Every single officer is a college graduate. Who rules the colleges and universities?

      Every single general/flag officer is the survivor of countless political battles and a master of covering his posterior. Careerism is alive and well in a very sick system.

      Proof: 40 Littoral Combat Ships.

  6. As an old ditch boy whose total Naval experience was 14 days on a troop ship, I can only shake my jowls. It does seem the Navy has lost direction. My relatives who were Navy are appaled.

  7. You won’t get a fight from me on lawyers, Glenfilthie!.

    And Tom in NC — whatever would make you think that?

  8. Glen- The ‘bottom line’ is that he went outside the chain of command, which was working the issue. There weren’t 4000+ beds immediately available on Guam. His ‘letter’ was NOT sent up the chain as it should have been, made public by ‘persons unknown’, indicated that a major combatant was not ready to do its mission, etc., and he didn’t even bring his direct superior who was literally four doors down on the same ship in on what he was doing. Who could say when he would do it again, if he didn’t get his way? The command structure lost confidence in him as a CO who would follow orders, THAT is why he was fired.

    I will still take even a lawyer who at least served in the Navy and spent time aboard ships. That is better than a political appointee who has never served.

    • Thanks NFO. I am not trying to insinuate anything or point fingers or insult anyone. I only know enough about to be dangerous and need some extra info.

    • The lawyer mindset overrules prior service for me. Having experienced the joys of lawyers on the battlefield, I despise them and everything they stand for. They’re no better than politicians. They exist to make their fellow servicemen miserable and get good people killed for no good reason.

  9. Modly has corrupted any Board of Inquiry or Court martial with “undue command influence.” I suspect Crozier of trying to spread responsibility around; and maybe gunning for a sweet, sweet TV gig or consultancy. Crozier could have arranged the debarkation and quarantine under his own authority, and passed a letter of intent to his boss. (I don’t know the Navy terms). Surely, immediate expenses could be covered by a Carrier budget, as an Army O-1 has a budget of hundreds of thousands, I hear.

  10. I was surprised that Modly did what he did and that he got fired. I heard a long interview with him on Townhall and he sounded squared away and with it. I don’t, however, know whether that interview was before or after the TR rant, which I didn’t hear. Unfortunate. I was hoping there’d be one good thing to come out of this. Either way the skipper was, from what I can tell, completely wrong.

    The new CO of the TR is the old CO of the TR so it shouldn’t take that long to get back up to speed. He is a selected admiral but hasn’t been gone that long so many of the crew will know him and he knows the ship.

  11. “….and he didn’t even bring his direct superior who was literally four doors down on the same ship in on what he was doing.”

    It maybe true of the letter, but not true of his concerns. Friend at the puzzle palace told me they have been dithering for weeks to come om with policy and procedures to deal with this.

    Crozier took one for his team. His crew loves him for it. I would have fire Modly before he ever got back to the states. No one will miss him.

  12. Ted- Valid point.

    Hereso- agreed!

    Gerry- Dithering on a Navy wide policy. NOT on the specific issues with TR. As I said earlier, you don’t shit 4000 beds overnight, much less set up quarantine procedures on shore without a LOT of coordination between the Navy, Air Force, and Guam authorities. That was ALL being worked at the PACFLT level, in conjunction with the CSG commander.

  13. It concerns me the structure of military command is so disjointed. Where many times in the past, the demand for discipline wasn’t arbitrary, since it’s what prevented the breakdown of any size unit. The politics have bled over into the private sector for scrutiny, and too many in the public don’t have a clue.

  14. I’m no expert, but the thing seems to stink. We’d say “stinketh” in trad Anglican.

    What does it mean? I don’t know, but Moldy exited stage left pretty dam sharp.

  15. Jess- Good point.

    TRX- Oh hell no!

    LSP- Yep, because he was hoist on his own petard due to his stupidity…

  16. The thing that stuck me is that Crozier was so popular with the crew. Liked, even well liked and respected I can understand. Popular? That doesn’t feel right.

  17. A little late to this, but I saw yesterday that the SecNav is considering restoring Crozier to his former position.

    Even though Modly mishandled this, aren’t the underlying reasons for the removal still valid? Didn’t his letter outside of the chain of command give intel to pour potential enemies?