The sudden retirement of Adm. William Moran, who was already confirmed by the Senate to be the next chief of naval operations and was set to take over Aug. 1, has set off a scramble to find a new CNO.
Moran was forced to decline the job over the revelation he maintained a professional relationship with a former public affairs officer who earned the nickname “Bad Santa” after a 2016 holiday party in which he was accused of inappropriate activity.
The Navy doesn’t have a long list of four-star admirals to pick from, and at the Pentagon yesterday the name that kept coming up was Adm. James Foggo, the commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa.
“It’s a horse race,” said one Navy official, who admitted he had no inside knowledge of who Navy Secretary Richard Spencer might pick. While Foggo seems a logical choice, the official said the other name that people are speculating about is Adm. Christopher Grady, commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command.
There are eight full admirals serving, but Spencer also has the option of reaching down to the three-star ranks and elevating one of the 41 vice admirals to the four-star post.
Spencer said he would move quickly to recommend a new candidate to acting Defense Secretary Mark Esper, but with the way things are going, he may be making that recommendation to himself. The unexpected withdrawal of Patrick Shanahan last month, along with provisions of the 1998 Federal Vacancies Reform Act, requires Esper — who’s been acting secretary for less than three weeks — to step aside while a third acting secretary takes over until he is confirmed or rejected by the Senate. Spencer, next in the line of succession at the Pentagon, will become acting secretary as soon as Esper’s nomination paperwork hits the Senate.
