SSN Bremerton was decommisioned in JULY of 2018. This article says he was relieved in August 2018...... how could he be relieved from a Sub in mothballs.
It does sound confusing, doesn’t it? But very little that is happening now makes sense.
Incident happened on “farewell” tour in March of 2018. I would assume the incident & Commander were being investigated through July/ August, so he was probably sort of “on hold” / suspended, until the investigation was completed and he was formally being given the boot. So, until then, maybe he was still technically the Commander of the sub. Ie., in name only. (I’m sure my terminology is all wrong.)
Perhaps one of our Navy vets can clear this up?