NBC: Ex-acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly's trip to Guam cost $243,000

[Maddox]

A trip to Guam that led to the resignation of acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly cost $243,000, a Navy official said Wednesday.

Modly resigned Tuesday, shortly after he took a 35-hour trip to the USS Theodore Roosevelt and upbraided the ship's commanding officer, Capt. Brett Crozier. Modly's comments were broadcast over the ship's loudspeakers.

Crozier had sent a letter to Navy officials pleading for help with an outbreak aboard the ship of COVID-19, the disease associated with the coronavirus. The letter leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle, drawing attention to the outbreak and generating a wave of headlines.

Modly relieved Crozier of his command on April 2, saying the captain's letter "unnecessarily raised the alarm of the families of our sailors and Marines." On Monday, in an expletive-laden comment aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, Modly excoriated the captain, suggesting that he was "stupid or naïve" for writing the letter and accusing him of a "betrayal of trust."

Ex-acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly's trip to Guam cost $243,000

He resigned shortly after taking the 35-hour trip aboard a Gulfstream 550.

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