Why he had to be relieved of duty.
What struck us as particularly off in the captain’s letter was his statement: “We are not at war.” He added that “sailors do not need to die” and that “if we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our sailors.” The Navy, though, doesn’t need to be instructed on the value of its own sailors. Plus, too, under our system it’s not carrier captains who decide whether we’re at war.
The most important asset is not the crew, but the ship, and the crew must be ready to be sacrificed for the mission. I wrote a book about that.
He was toast as soon as the story leaked. Send your memo to the admiral in your chain of command only. That’s why it exists. I remember the incident with Capt. Owen Honors on the Big E. What people don’t know about the story is that his CO at the time who should have seen it coming (had his six as they say) and had advanced to become a three-star also saw his naval career flatlined. The one retired Navy command master chief I saw that commented on it agreed it was more of a failure of command than it was Capt. Honors political incorrectness. Integrity & chain of command matters. The Navy takes care of its own.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Honors
Good thing they found out he was incompetent before he got shot at.