Posted on 04/06/2020 4:51:49 AM PDT by knighthawk
Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said he “had no discussions with anyone at the White House prior to making the decision” to relieve Capt. Brett Crozier, according to a report on Sunday.
Navy sources had said that Modly told a colleague President Trump wanted Crozier fired. Modly told the Washington Post that he wanted to make the move before Trump ordered the captain out.
“I didn’t want to get into a decision where the president would feel that he had to intervene because the Navy couldn’t be decisive,” Modly said, according to the paper.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I wonder how many sailors would have had to died before the Navy brass allowed the ship back into port if the Captain had not complained about how back the situation was?
BTW he is now infected.
Was this to me?
I apologize in advance for the length of this reply, but it is a concept I feel quite strongly about.
I have to say, I cannot find the actual text of the four page letter that was leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle. I only see excepts. (If someone has that full text, I wouldn’t mind seeing it-they may have it behind their firewall and you have to have a subscription, perhaps.) I wouldn’t trust even a single line from the SF Chronicle, never mind their excerpts, so I am admittedly in the dark here.
*********************************************************
I think the issue is that he sent this somewhat panicked (it was certainly perceived that way) communication out to a large, group of people, where I presume someone with an agenda leaked it, and the rest is history.
As the Captain, that was a gross mistake, if mistake it was. I have never been in that situation as a commanding officer and leader, but the concept of Chain of Command is scaleable from E1 up to and incuding O-10 (as General MacArthur found out)
Even with multiple chains of commands (which do occur for a variety of reasons, but I believe should be avoided when possible) it is probably foolish to spam all of them at the same time, even if you feel like you have something to shout about (he apparently did)
A solid chain of command is a foundational rule in the military, and for good reason IMO. Heck, it is a good practice in civilian life. I think we can all agree, though, that the design of the chain of command is not always what it should be. War situations are often full of poorly thought out chains of command, some that are simply bureaucratically undesirable, and some where the actual differing chains may be in full conflict (both conceptually and personally) which is often untenable for the commander who may have to choose which one is more important for a large number of reasons...and not always the right reasons for a mission.
Any officer who rises as far up the ranks as this officer did should have plenty of experience at spotting chains of command that will put him in an untenable position, and addressing it where possible. I admit it is not always possible to address it, and like most people, I suspect they accept it and hope it will never come to a head that will place them in an untenable position.
But I am a believer in the chain of command concept. I grew up with it in a Navy family and watched my Dad navigate it, I had my own military experience with it, and in the civilian world, I still adhere fastidiously to the concept, and it has served me well. I think it is good practice and common sense.
If I have an issue, I have to take it to my boss.
If my boss is not inclined to take action, I take it to my boss’s boss.
If still no action, I have the institutional option to become a whistleblower and take the issue to an institutional entity set up for that purpose, which most large institutions have.
After that, I can take it public, if I am willing to go to the mat for something.
The Captain should have followed that route. He did the equivalent of me sending an email to 10 people above my boss which he should not have done, IMO. He darn well should have known better, being in the Military.
What he did was professional suicide. The Navy has a reputation for protecting the Naval Service above all, to their detriment. When he did that, he took off his protective armor and exposed his bare back for the insertion of a blade.
All that said: I fully appreciate that he had the concern for the welfare of his crew in mind. Realistically, the Navy as an entity often does not share that focus no matter how much lip service they may pay it here and there.
A lot of people are harsh on the Captain, but I think he had a genuine concern for the sailors in his command. But what he did is uniformly viewed as a mistake, and in that rarefied atmosphere as the Captain of one of the largest warships in the world at the point of a nuclear-tipped spear, they expect men like him to be more astute and an error like this makes people nervous.
As an aside, I was an enlisted man on a carrier back in the Seventies, and there was an issue that caused the Commanding Officer of the carrier to assemble a large group of several hundred crew (of which I was one) and he went over the edge. I have to tell, you, it frightened me. Here we are, on one of the most powerful warships in the world, armed with nuclear weapons, and this Commanding Officer went berserk to the point of losing control, spittle flying out of his lips, more profanity than substance, the whole nine yards.
I recognized just how serious the issue was, but in my mind, when I saw this demonstration, I was deeply concerned and more worried about having him in command. I expect a man in his position to be in control of his faculties, and it looked to me that if he was, it was just barely. I don’t care how serious that situation was, I don’t want to see my Commanding Officer act like that in front of his crew.
Not saying this Captain in question was like that. But some people read that missive of his and were quite troubled by the tone, if not the jump outside the chain.
I agree completely. NAVSEC’s speech to the crew and his opinion piece published by the NYT was a very long attempt to cover his own ass and refusal to accept any responsibility.
Captain Crozier didn’t leak the letter; someone else did. Even if Crozier did send the letter on a secure email system, it would have still been leaked. The Deep State is very deep, even at the Pentagon.
Modly is in a CYA mode. He’s gone; he just might not realize it. You just don’t call a Navy Captain “stupid” and expect there will be no consequences for yourself.
I read Modly’s bio. He’s was an effing REMF when he was in the Navy.
“..You just don’t call a Navy Captain ‘stupid’...”
What I read was a little different. I read, “... it was a stupid thing to say...” But what I understood was that the words were hearsay. There was nothing I saw in writing. So, possibly, someone exaggerated.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.