The Navy has relieved 12 commanding officers so far in 2024 — including three firings that have not previously been made public, according to information provided to Military.com by the service.
In addition to the nine publicly announced firings, Capt. Alex Dutko, manager of the Direct and Time Sensitive Strike program; Capt. Michael Meno, commander of Naval Construction Group 1; and Capt. David Wilson, commander of Naval Support Activity South Potomac, were also relieved of their commands in the past six months, a Navy spokesman said.
When asked about the three firings and why they were not made public, the Navy spokesman said that the sea service does not publicly announce reliefs that are not the result of a loss of the trust and confidence in the officers’ ability to command.
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Loss of confidence is a boilerplate reason provided by the Navy that can encompass anything from issues with the way the commander is treating their crew to personal actions like drunken driving. However, commanders can also be relieved for medical reasons or ask to be relieved themselves, the Navy spokesman noted.
Navy officials have previously said the sea service relieved 15 commanding officers in 2023. There are currently around 1,600 commanding officers in the active-duty Navy across all communities.
Since the start of the year, the Navy has fired three…
