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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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