Acting Navy Secretary resigns after ousting captain, calling him “stupid”

Enlarge / Thomas Modly, now the former acting secretary of the Navy, at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019. (credit: Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images)

Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly resigned today amid blowback for his handling of a coronavirus outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the subsequent removal of its captain from command.

Modly offered his resignation earlier Tuesday, Politico reported, and Tuesday afternoon The Wall Street Journal was first to report that Acting Undersecretary of the Army James McPherson would supplant Modly in the role.

Modly relieved Captain Brett Crozier of his command on April 2, after the San Francisco Chronicle published a four-page letter Crozier had written to military officials asking for resources to protect his crew from a COVID-19 outbreak on board the ship.

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