Sestak Keeps Missing the Mark on His Navy Firing

By ARLEN SPECTER FOR SENATE

Harrisburg — Cong. Joe Sestak has set forth yet another reason for his firing from the Navy in 2005 that contradicts his earlier explanations.

One day after Admiral Mike Mullen was sworn in as the new Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) in 2005, he fired Joe Sestak from his position as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for what the Navy called “poor command climate,” according to a Navy Times story on July 25, 2006.

Since then Sestak has had multiple explanations for the career-ending firing, including a new one mentioned in a just published Philadelphia Magazine profile. (http://www.phillymag.com/articles/joe_sestak_profile_run_joe_run/)

First, some background is needed. Initially, Sestak asserted that the Navy’s explanation of his firing was inaccurate. In March 2006, he told the Navy Times, “I never had a problem indicating a bad command climate. The CNO, just as any CEO does, has the right to have the four people he wants around him. And I was comfortable with being reassigned.” (The Hill, March 20, 2006)

A former Navy officer told the (Norristown) Times-Herald in April of 2006 that the command climate comment was “a euphemism for poor leadership that results in low morale amongst the sailors and officers. If everyone is upset, angry, and there is a general lack of camaraderie, we would call that ‘poor command climate.’ For a captain or admiral to be reassigned is big. A career end.” (Times-Herald, April 1, 2006)

But in an April 2006 story in The Hill, Sestak implied he was let go because of the change he wanted to bring to the Navy. “Change is very challenging,” Sestak said regarding the incident. “It did not sit well with a lot of people…I work hard, and I did not ask anyone to work harder than me.” (The Hill, April 4, 2006)

Now Sestak has another ‘new’ explanation – he wasn’t fired, but resigned on his own. In the December 2009 issue of Philadelphia Magazine, Sestak says that he “wasn’t fired. He resigned voluntarily, because Mullen wanted to bring in his own team.”

The Philadelphia Magazine article notes that the Navy Times stands by their original story.

Several months after being fired, Sestak retired from the Navy as a 2-Star Admiral. Early in 2006 he changed his registration and became a Democrat, and then launched his campaign for Congress in Pa-7.

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