Navy Secretary defends firing SD carrier's captain in address to ship's crew

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, who fired the commanding officer of a San Diego-based aircraft carrier over his publicized concerns regarding the Navy's response to a COVID-19 outbreak aboard his ship, said in a leaked address to the crew that he believed the captain either purposefully sent his letter to unauthorized parties or must have been "too naive or too stupid'' to realize the import of his actions.

In a recording published Monday by the military publication Task & Purpose, Modly defended his decision to fire Capt. Brett Crozier of the USS Theodore Roosevelt to th...