Update: Thomas B. Modly has offered his resignation.

When the Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas B. Modly traveled to Guam on Sunday to speak to the sailors on the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, he needed to deliver a clear and calming message. He needed to address concerns over the recent firing of the ship’s commander, Captain Brett Crozier, and to reassure the crew that the Navy was taking appropriate steps to treat sailors with the coronavirus. He failed miserably.

Instead, he launched into a profanity-laced tirade in which he accused the captain of betrayal and suggested that he was “too naïve or too stupid to be a commanding officer”. Modly repeatedly criticized Crozier’s integrity and suggested the possibility of court-martial for the captain. He also inserted partisan politics into the speech by attacking former Vice President Joe Biden, who has repeatedly criticized Crozier’s removal. Modly also slammed the crew for giving the captain a rousing sendoff as he left the ship.

The NY Times quotes one observer as describing Modly’s speech, delivered over the carrier’s intercom system as “whiny, upset, irritated, condescending.”  On a recording, obtained by Task & Purpose, crew members can be heard reacting with shock at Modly’s disparaging remarks about Crozier. During the speech, someone can be heard yelling “What the f_ck?” One sailor on the ship, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it felt as if Modly had come all the way to visit the ship’s crew in Guam only to rub salt in an open wound.

In a statement Monday, Modly defended his remarks: “I stand by every word I said.”

By Monday evening, however, Modly completely reversed course, writing, “Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid. I think and always believed him to be the opposite.

“I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused. I also want to apologize directly to Captain Crozier, his family, and the entire crew of the Theodore Roosevelt for any pain my remarks may have caused.”

Modly’s reversal came immediately after Trump made a complimentary comment about Captain Crozier. It appears that during the entire affair, Modly has acted less out of concern for what is best for the Navy but rather what will please his notional boss.

In a telephone call to the Washington Post’s David Ignatius early Sunday morning, Modly explained his rationale for the firing in terms of trying to keep his boss happy. “I didn’t want to get into a decision where the president would feel that he had to intervene because the Navy couldn’t be decisive. If I were president, and I saw a commanding officer of a ship exercising such poor judgment, I would be asking why the leadership of the Navy wasn’t taking action itself.”

Modly became acting secretary in November after the former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer was fired for dissenting from Trump’s attempt to exonerate a navy seal, Eddie Gallagher, who had been accused of war crimes and was demoted after being found guilty of posing with the corpse of an Islamic State fighter.

Modly explained to Ignatius that his predecessor, Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, “lost his job because the Navy Department got crossways with the president” in the Gallagher case. “I didn’t want that to happen again.” The acting secretary reiterated the point later in the conversation: “I put myself in the president’s shoes. I considered how the president felt like he needed to get involved in Navy decisions [in the Gallagher case and the Spencer firing]. I didn’t want that to happen again.”