The Navy has decided it will no longer post news releases when a commander is terminated for misconduct or poor performance, according to a report.
The shift in practice follows the “Fat Leonard” debacle, the bribery scandal involving a defense contractor that led to guilty pleas from more than a dozen Navy and Pentagon officials.
Under its prior practice, the Navy sporadically announced on websites and through news releases that commanders that had been relieved and notified news outlets via email of those relieved. The Navy would typically say a commander was sacked due to a loss of confidence in the ability to command.
But that will now change, USA Today reported. Reporters have to ask first.
“Navy Public Affairs will continue to respond to every query on reliefs in a timely and thorough manner,” Capt. Greg Hicks, Navy spokesman, said in a statement. “As a practice, we will do so taking the necessary diligence to safeguard security, ensure information accuracy, and stay within the bounds of both policy and privacy.”
Hicks said the new practice will have no impact on how the Navy addresses commanders who fall short of meeting expectations.
“The United States Navy will continue to hold leaders accountable when they fail to meet the high expectations placed upon them in their unique positions of authority and responsibility,” he said. “These accountability actions reflect the seriousness in which the Navy views and holds public trust and confidence in our Commanding Officers, Executive Officers, and Command Master Chiefs.”
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson, in a Pentagon briefing to reporters Wednesday afternoon, said he thinks the issue is being “overblown.”
“I don’t think that in the practice much is going to change,” he said. “I think that is being overblown quite a bit. The thing that we value most of all is our relationship of trust and confidence both within the ranks — and you know our sailors are part of that audience — and then certainly with the American people as well, and so we wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that, that relationship of trust and confidence, and so I think there is perhaps more being made of that than you will see in practice.”
According to USA Today, roughly 1.5 percent of the Navy’s commanders have been relieved.
With its new practice, the Navy will be more in line with how other branches of the military deal with high-level reliefs.
