Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Navy unfires minesweeper CO

Two years ago the Navy fired the skipper of the USS Devastator for not maintaining readiness standards. Now, I am hearing, his removal has been overturned.   I admire the Navy for maintaining the tradition of relief. But if they really want to be old school, they should give the guy a ship to command. ...

By , a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy.
navytimes.com
navytimes.com
navytimes.com

Two years ago the Navy fired the skipper of the USS Devastator for not maintaining readiness standards. Now, I am hearing, his removal has been overturned.  

Two years ago the Navy fired the skipper of the USS Devastator for not maintaining readiness standards. Now, I am hearing, his removal has been overturned.  

I admire the Navy for maintaining the tradition of relief. But if they really want to be old school, they should give the guy a ship to command. (Last night I cam across yet another Army general in WWII who was relieved of command of a division in combat, only eventually to get another one, and in 1951 became superintendent at West Point. His name is Frederick Irving. Frankly I had never heard of him.)

While we are on the subject, these cats did a nice overview of Navy firings of ship captains.

Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1

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