Navy nominee: Service is in rough waters, cites leadership
The U.S. Navy is in “rough waters” and suffering from leadership failures, the diplomat tapped to be the next Navy secretary told a Senate committee May 7. He pledged to restore a culture of good order and discipline to the service.
Kenneth J. Braithwaite, the ambassador to Norway and a retired Navy rear admiral, faced repeated questions about recent crises that have rocked the service, including the firing of an aircraft carrier captain who urged faster action to fight a coronavirus outbreak on his ship and the subsequent resignation of the acting secretary who fired him.
Braithwaite said that Navy culture has been tarnished and trust in the service’s leaders has broken down.
“It saddens me to say that the Department of the Navy is in rough waters due to many factors but primarily the failure of leadership,” he said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Braithwaite said he is ready to face the challenge of repairing those problems.
Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the panel’s top Democrat, told Braithwaite that he must address the effects of the pandemic on the Navy and its ships, including the mishandling of the outbreak on the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
Reed agreed with Braithwaite’s assessment that the Navy’s chain of command is in disarray, and “nothing illustrates that more than the Roosevelt situation.”
After an outbreak of coronavirus was discovered on the Roosevelt, the ship’s commander, Navy Capt. Brett Crozier, sent a note to several commanders pleading for more urgent Navy action, including the removal of nearly all sailors from the ship to protect their health.
The acting Navy secretary at the time, Thomas Modly, accused Cozier of bad judgment and directed that he be relieved of command April 2. Days later, amid an uproar of his handling of the matter, Modly resigned and was replaced by James McPherson.
After a preliminary inquiry was done, Adm. Mike Gilday, the chief of naval operations, initially recommended Crozier be reinstated as captain. But McPherson decided to launch a broader investigation into the communications and decision-making on the outbreak up through the chain of command.
That probe, which is expected to be done by month’s end, puts a decision on Crozier’s reinstatement on hold.
Braithwaite is a 1984 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland, and he served as a naval aviator. AP
N. Korea accuses South of ‘reckless’ drills along sea border
North Korea threatened May 8 to retaliate against South Korea for “reckless” military drills near their disputed sea boundary, but the South denied any training in the immediate area, the scene of several bloody naval skirmishes in recent years.
The wrangling came five days after South Korea accused the North of initiating an exchange of gunfire along their land border. No casualties were reported, but the incident was a reminder of persistent tensions on the peninsula.
North Korea’s Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces accused South Korea of mobilizing fighter jets and warships for drills on their western sea boundary on Wednesday.
“Such reckless move of the military warmongers of the south side is the height of the military confrontation,” it said in a statement carried by North Korean state media. “This is a grave provocation which can never be overlooked and this situation demands a necessary reaction from us.”
North Korea said the South Korean drills violated 2018 agreements that require both countries to halt firing exercises along their land and sea borders to lower front-line tensions.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the drills didn’t break the agreements because they took place in its western waters about 185 miles from the sea boundary. A ministry official, requesting anonymity because of department rules, said South Korea has been maintaining military readiness without violating the 2018 agreements.
On May 10, South Korea said several bullets fired from North Korea struck one of its front-line guard posts and South Korean soldiers fired 20 warning shots in return. South Korea sent a message asking North Korea to explain the incident, but the North has yet to reply, the Defense Ministry said.
Relations between the two Koreas improved significantly in 2018 as their leaders held three rounds of talks. But much of the rapprochement stalled as broader diplomacy between North Korea and the United States came to a standstill because of disputes over the North’s nuclear disarmament.
The United States stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea to help deter potential aggression from North Korea. AP
Putin marks Victory Day in virus-reduced ceremony
Russian President Vladimir Putin marked Victory day, the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, in a ceremony shorn of its usual military parade and pomp by the coronavirus pandemic.
Putin on May 9 laid flowers at the tomb of the unknown soldier just outside the Kremlin walls and gave a short address honoring the valor and suffering of the Soviet army during the war.
Victory Day is Russia’s most important secular holiday and this year’s observance had been expected to be especially large because it is the 75th anniversary, but the Red Square military parade and a mass procession called The Immortal Regiment were postponed as part of measures to stifle the spread of the virus.
The only vestige of the conventional show of military might was a flyover of central Moscow by 75 warplanes and helicopters.
In the final events of the VE Day commemoration in Western Europe, which took place a day earlier, Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate was illuminated late May 8.
The words “Thank You” against a blue backdrop were projected onto the monument in Russian, English, French and German.
Earlier in the day German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier described May 8 as the day Germany, too, was “liberated” from Nazi dictatorship. AP
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