Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly has offered his resignation to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, after his disastrous handling of the coronavirus outbreak aboard a nuclear powered aircraft carrier, his decision to fire its commanding officer, and then calling that CO “stupid,” as Politico reports.
Esper has said he supported Modly’s decision to immediately fire Capt. Brett Crozier last week.
It is not known if Esper will accept Modly’s resignation, but public outrage over the massive coronavirus infection and what many see as Navy leadership ignoring it has been pervasive.
A Washington Post report last week stated Modly had said he was firing the Captain because President Trump wanted him to.
“Navy sources had said Modly told a colleague that Trump ‘wants him [Crozier] fired,’ and though Modly denied getting any direct message to that effect, he clearly understood that Trump was unhappy with the uproar surrounding the Roosevelt.”
Modly on Monday flew eight hours to Guam to deliver a speech to the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt during which he told sailors their fired commanding officer was “too stupid” to helm their ship, because he should have known his letter pleading with his superiors to help his crew would get leaked.
Acting Sec. Modly’s speech – the transcript and audio – were immediately leaked to the press.
He has since apologized for his profanity, which he erroneously claims is a major source of public outrage, and for calling Crozier “stupid” and “naive.”
In the leaked audio one sailor can be heard saying “What the f***?” when Modly called their captain “stupid.”
Modly is effectively President Donald Trump’s fourth Navy Secretary. This is his second tour as Acting Navy Secretary under this president.
Trump fired Modly’s predecessor, Richard Spencer over Spencer’s opposition to Trump pardoning a Navy SEAL charged with committing war crimes. Spencer is the only Senate-confirmed Navy Secretary Trump has had.
Upon taking office Trump asked for the resignations of most of President Barack Obama’s military leaders, including then-Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, who “served as the 75th United States Secretary of the Navy, the longest to serve as leader of the Navy and Marine Corps since World War I,” the Defense Dept. website says.
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