Insult to injury

Former Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly's trip to Guam where his speech to the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt eventually led to his resignation cost the Defense Department an estimated $243,000, according to multiple reports.

First reported by USA Today, Modly, who resigned Tuesday after audio and transcripts of his speech were leaked, traveled to Guam in a modified Gulfstream jet. The jet reportedly cost $6,946.19 per hour to fly. With roughly 35 hours of total air time, the cost of the trip comes out to just over $243,000.

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Answering my question

Which was, why are they appointing an army under secretary to temporarily replace Modly? Is there no under secretary of the Navy?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

As it should be

That's what you get for doing Trump's dirty work.  And wearing such obvious hair plugs.

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned Tuesday after fanning the flames of a controversy over a coronavirus outbreak on board an aircraft carrier.

[...]

Modly initially had Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s support in firing Crozier, but the fallout from his speech became too much to overcome.

[...]

After he was fired, his crew gave him a hero’s sendoff, clapping and chanting his name as he walked off the ship.

As of Tuesday, the Navy reported 230 cases of coronavirus on the Roosevelt after 79 percent of the crew has been tested. The Navy said 1,999 sailors have been taken off the ship as it is docked in Guam, with 1,232 staying at hotels.

Over the weekend, Modly told The Washington Post he stepped in to fire Crozier in part because he wanted to get out in front of any action by the president.

Before Trump did the firing himself, in other words.

[A] growing chorus of lawmakers was calling for Modly’s removal from office, including House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

“When I listened to the speech that acting Secretary Modly gave, it was almost like he was trying to do sort of a half-assed imitation of how Donald Trump would have given a speech,” Smith told reporters Tuesday in a response to a question from The Hill.

[...]

In a tweet, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he accepted Modly’s resignation and that undersecretary of the Army James McPherson will take over as acting Navy secretary.

  The Hill

Undersecretary of the Army? The sailors will be thrilled. Is there no undersecretary of the Navy?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Forced apology

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly apologized to crew members of the USS Theodore Roosevelt and its former commander Monday evening over remarks he made earlier in the day calling Capt. Brett Crozier "naive" or "stupid."

"Let me be clear: I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive or stupid," Modly said in a statement obtained by several media outlets. "I think, and always believed him to be the opposite."

"I believe, precisely because he is not naive or stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it to the public domain in an attempt to draw public attention to the situation on his ship," Modly added.

Modley added, "I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused. I also want to apologize to directly to Captain Crozier, his family, and the entire crew of the Theodore Roosevelt for any pain my remarks may have caused."

[...]

Modly, in a speech also leaked to the media, said Monday that if [Navy Capt. Brett] Crozier didn't didn’t think [his letter to Navy brass about coronavirus crisis on his ship,] would leak, he was “too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this” and that if he leaked the letter himself, he had committed a “serious violation” of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

[...]

"Acting Secretary Modly’s decision to address the sailors on the Roosevelt and personally attack Captain Crozier shows a tone-deaf approach more focused on personal ego than one of the calm, steady leadership we so desperately need in this crisis," said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.). "I no longer have confidence in Acting Secretary Modly’s leadership of the Navy and believe he should be removed from his position."

  The Hill

He should be, but he won't be. Trump demanded the removal of Captain Crozier.

General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Admiral Michael Gilday, the chief of naval operations, believed that the Navy should have allowed an investigation into the letter written by Crozier to run its course.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper initially sided with the officers, according to The Washington Post.

But Esper eventually yielded to Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, who favored immediately dismissing Crozier because he believed that is what President Trump wanted.

  Veterans Today

Without a doubt, he believed that because that's what he was told.

UPDATE:  Resigned.