Modly’s Farewell
Former Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly sent a letter to the fleet following his resignation Tuesday. (MC1 Sarah Villegas/Navy)
I was greeted with this in my in-box this morning, and Jeff LPH 3 sends.
‘You are justified in being angry with me’ — Read the SECNAV’s final memo to the fleet
J.D. Simkins
Acting Secretary of the NavyThomas Modly resigned Tuesday , capping perhaps the most tumultuous 24-hour public relations fiasco the sea service has ever encountered.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper confirmed Modly’s resignation in an official statement, saying, “He resigned on his own accord, putting the Navy and the Sailors above self so that the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, and the Navy as an institution, can move forward,” Esper said in an official statement.
“His care for the Sailors was genuine. Secretary Modly served the nation for many years, both in and out of uniform. I have the deepest respect for anyone who serves our country, and who places the greater good above all else. … I wish him all the best.”
Modly’s resignation comes less than 24 hours after numerous Democratic members of Congress called for his firing over his handling of the dismissal of Capt. Brett Crozier, the former commanding officer of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt who penned a leaked letter pleading for U.S. intervention to stifle a COVID-19 outbreak on the 4,800-person ship.
As his last act as Navy secretary — before James McPherson, who was confirmed as the Army’s number two official just 15 days ago, takes over the newly vacated role — Modly distributed one final memo to the fleet.
The text of that letter, in its entirety, is as follows:
I tried to slog through his final message. Read the letter here: Navy Times
Thanks, Jeff.
Category: Big Pentagon, COVID-19, Guest Link, Navy
“Slog” is an accurate description of what it takes to read through it. What a bunch of self aggrandizing drivel in that message. Good riddance to a naive, stupid and egocentric narcissist!
Talk about tl;dr
He sent one of those numbered ‘SECNAV Vectors’ out per week via email. If nothing else it made it easy to reference that he’d been on the job 19 weeks. I really had hopes for #9, too–I was hoping it was about jetpacks, but it wasn’t.
?!?DaHell?!? And I thought a stroke killed brain cells. If wrote that and it is any kind of indication of his ability to do anything, I’m wondering who all he had to orally gratify to get anywhere in life. KMN!
I sure hope that wasn’t read over the 1MC to the troops. They’d probably prefer to catch the bug.
I think his letter should have been nice and concise:
To all members of the United States Navy, it is immediately apparent that my actions this past week have proven that I am too naïve or too stupid to be a service secretary. It’s been an honor to insult you.
-Former Acting SECNAV Modly.
Mason, 15 points to the Hogwarts house of your choice for that post. Made my morning.
https://youtu.be/NfDUkR3DOFw
The stupid is strong in this one.
Looks like Dr. Strangelove too:
Hey everyone. Long time follower, first time poster. Just an old 96B army vet here. I think intel is 35F now but eh… Anyways, this whole shelter in place thing has given me a lot to think about. I’m thrilled this arrogant prick resigned. Yeah, Capt. Crozier could of handled his concerns over COVID-19 and its effects on his crew in a more delicate…ahem..confidential manner. I have to assume though, he knew exactly what he was doing and that there would be some blowback. He obviously felt urgent action needed to be taken. Putting it out there in the public sphere instead of quietly bringing it up the chain of command at the very least insured the matter was going to be immediately addressed. I’m sure it was a decision he wrestled with. Was he wrong? I don’t think the answer to that is so cut and dry. It’s real easy for us to point fingers and condemn his actions. Most of us have never been under the pressure of being directly responible for that many lives.
Welcome and thanks for the comment, Glorified Weather Man. If you’ve been a lurker for a while you already know how we operate here, and what to expect. So comment more often and voice your opinion- there’s value in new perspectives.
AW1
Motherfucking Spinal Tap?
Really?
Jesus. Cock gobbling. Christ.
That’s the most tone deaf thing I think I have ever seen.
I am sitting here with my mouth hanging open. (HEY! No dick jokes, fuckers)
At some point shortly after that, I almost choked on my own drool.
That’s as far as I got, Chip. His amp doesn’t get close to 11.
Both the reason for resignation and the resignation letter itself left much to be desired for a senior leader.
I wasn’t going to read it until I saw you mention Spinal Tap. After breezing for a few lines, I still don’t want to read it.
The basic AAR from this thing:
>Don’t be the skipper of an aircraft carrier and leak your message which should have been drafted, sent and maintained on the SIPRNet.
>Don’t be a jackass, if you find yourself the Secretary of the Navy, when you fire an alarmist aircraft carrier CO.
I’m Army
I don’t and won’t pretend to understand Da Navy
But what a cluster FUK
Newly designated acting SECNAV:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_E._McPherson
He’s lucky the crew didn’t decide “fuckit what worse could they do to us” and attach him by his shoelaces to a catapult shuttle and launch him off.
I wonder how far he would have flown and how many times he would have skipped across the water? Granted, they would have had to dial back the pressure on the catapult to keep it from slamming THROUGH the water brakes, but I bet there would still have been some distance.
Meh, I say “FAH-KHEEM!!”
“I have been monitoring the crew of the TR and all of ships with coronavirus (COVID-19) cases closely. ”
So other ships *do* have a coronavirus problem. Isn’t his publicizing that a violation of OPSEC?
He shore is a wordy feller, ain’t he?
Clearly not a war college grad.
Cost to the American Taxpayer for a jaunt to Guam to show how big of an ass one can be:
243K
Almost like SanFranNan’s weekly trips to SF on her privately used publicly funded jet. Still say the majority of these assholes could fly first class at far less expense, and judging by what they accomplish, we would not be losing any effectiveness from them.
Modly flew aboard the C-37B, a Gulfstream 550 business jet modified for military (executive) use. The per-hour cost of flying it is $6,946.19 per hour, according to the Navy official who was not authorized to speak publicly. Flight time for the Guam trip was about 35 hours for a cost of $243,116.65.
From the Stars and Stripes:
More than half of all U.S. sailors who have tested positive for coronavirus are attached to the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, according to Navy data released Wednesday.
Across the Navy, 548 service members have contracted the illness and 286 of those are Roosevelt sailors, the update said. Nearly all the ship’s crew has been tested, with 10% coming back positive. None have been hospitalized.
So the civilian leadership of the Army and Navy are interchangeable?
Looks a bit like in the process of resigning this clown has committed each and every one of the things he accused Capt Cozier of doing that got this mess started. Plus a few extra.
Setting an example is for thou, not for him, you know.
Drudge reporting
https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2020-04-09/military-warns-of-coronavirus-breakouts-aboard-uss-nimitz-aircraft-carrier
From the article:
Not enough local hotel space exists in Bremerton, Washington, where the ship is based, for its commanders to quarantine crew members, so they’re attempting to isolate them on board, the general said.
Here we go again…