SEATTLE: United States Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) over his mishandling of an outbreak of the coronavirus on the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced. Esper said Modly’s replacement as acting Navy secretary would be current Army Undersecretary Jim McPherson, a retired admiral. Modly was the second navy chief to depart in just over four months. In November, Esper fired Navy secretary Richard Spencer after he pushed back against Trump’s protection of Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher, who had been charged with war crimes and convicted of lesser charges. Crozier “demonstrated extremely poor judgment in the middle of a crisis” in his handling of the letter, Modly said.

Source: Manila Times April 08, 2020 16:17 UTC