Given my desire to resolve a festering issue, I tried to find a way that would prevent the president from further involvement while trying all avenues to get Gallaghers file in front of a peer-review board, why? The Naval Special Warfare [NSW]community owns the Trident pin, not the secretary of the Navy, not the defense secretary, not even the president.If the review board concluded that Gallagher deserved to keep it, so be it.

Former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer

Categorized in : Politics

On Nov. 14, partly because the president had already contacted me twice, I sent him a note asking him not to get involved in these questions [posed by the review board], the next day, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone called me and said the president would remain involved. Shortly thereafter, I received a second call from Cipollone, who said the president would order me to restore Gallagher to the rank of chief.

Former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer

politics

The rest is history, we must now move on and learn from what has transpired. The public should know that we have extensive screening procedures in place to assess the health and well-being of our forces. But we must keep fine-tuning those procedures to prevent a case such as this one from happening again.

Former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer

politics

That was, I see in retrospect, a mistake for which I am solely responsible.

Former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer

politics