CDR Salamander - Someone Called a Code Red on the CNO

Amazing how a good night’s sleep can change the flavor of a post. On Tuesday when I read this spoof-worthy weak-cheese hit piece on the Chief of Naval Operations by Greg Jaffe and Kate Kelly over at the New York Times, I was—to be blunt—pissed. It was so clear what this was and the goal of it all.

After a Wednesday at the paying gig that got too busy to finish the post, I found myself Wednesday night as I doing my final editing, feeling a bit bad. Not for Admiral Caudle—he’ll be fine as this smear is so lame—but for Jaffe and Kelly.

It is such a poorly constructed hatchet-job that it couldn’t be something that a pair—a pair—of reporters would take to their editor and say, “We have something important…”

This reads like an editor-or-higher directed a hit piece trying to—for reasons best known by the parties involved—to dirty up and politicize one of the more benign and mission focused people in DC, the CNO. I assume that is why Jaffe and Kelly put out this wildly unbalanced article.

The authors cannot be all that proud of this work. It is narrowly sourced, has no smoking guns, no solid evidence, and no tie-ins with breaking news. Indeed, it mostly reads like the byproduct of a couple of interviews with bitter-ender leftists stewing over their regular paycheck, tired of being forced to defend their service to DJT’s Pentagon to all their DC-commute-range peers. So, they found someone at the NYT who still thinks diversity-uber-alles in mid-2026.

I’m still a bit pissed that this hackery showed up in The Grey Lady, but I’m dialing it back. Accept my apology for not letting you enjoy an Old School Salamander rage-fisking…but let’s dive in anyway.

As regulars have figured out by now, I hold no brief for or against Admiral Caudle. I feel about him about the same way as I did about his predecessor, Admiral Franchetti. Search my Substack for her and see for yourself. That being said, the NYT article just about radicalizes me towards giving Caudle a green range wherever he wants to go.

The article does not even try to be informative, take middle ground, or look to inform. They’re not hiding the malicious intent. Heck, look at the pic at the top of the post. That is part of the cover photo for their article. You’d be hard-pressed to find a less complementary picture of the CNO. I’ll give the photo editor credit for their transparency…laughable transparency, but transparency.

Because some people have never left middle school, of course they start with…DRAMA!

Adm. Daryl Caudle saw an opening to land the Navy’s top job last year, and he seized it.

That is their hook…and I kept looking for where it bites…but there is nothing there but a dull probe.

Before Pete Hegseth had even been sworn in as defense secretary, Admiral Caudle, then the head of a major Navy training command, offered to help Mr. Hegseth prepare for his politically contentious Senate confirmation hearing, according to current and former defense officials.

No evidence. No “Ref. A”, just former defense officials (no clarifying if they were Biden political appointees or people who were let go after 2024…that would be nice to know).

Wait, excuse me. USFF is a, “major Navy training command”?

FFS. Just take two seconds to review the “Organization” part of their webpage. They are as much a training command as I am a farmer.

These are NYT journalists, not a begging blogger. No excuse…this was an intentional attempt to degrade Caudle’s background. Even if an innocent mistake, the weaponized ignorance/laziness calls into question the veracity of everything else in the article.

Additionally, would one of those “former officials” be that guy whom Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao let go recently? Sounds like it maybe. Who knows.

Firings must continue until leak sources go away.

The outreach was a breach of military ethics, the officials said. Senior military officers are supposed to avoid any hint of partisan bias or political activity.

Huh. I did a search and found nothing written by the reporters about former CNO Gilday’s constant pimping of the hyper-political book by Ibram X. Kendi. Neither does my search find either of them covering former CJCS Milley’s pontificating about “white rage”. As Jaffe and Kelly frame this about “diversity”—I mean the sub-title of the article is, “Before he was picked to lead the Navy, Adm. Daryl Caudle found ways to signal his support for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s anti-diversity goals.” —I think this is fair to point out.

Oh, it is Thursday, isn’t it? I guess we will call this “Diversity Thursday Adjacent” and carry on with the plan of the day.

This source deserves a name. The fact it doesn’t have one just dilutes all that follows:

…soon after Mr. Hegseth took office, he fired the first woman to lead the Navy: Admiral Caudle’s boss. Days later, a senior officer on Admiral Caudle’s staff contacted Mr. Hegseth’s team in another breach of protocol.

His pitch: Mr. Hegseth should choose Admiral Caudle to be the next chief of naval operations, the current and former officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters.

Let’s speak as adults, shall we? Caudle was Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, and a four-star. His deputy was a three-star. The Executive Director and Chief of Staff is a retired 30-yr Navy Captain. This is not a call that would be made by someone more junior than those two men.

The only people who would know about that call and its substance on the other end would be, at most, three people on Hegseth’s staff.

Literally just a handful of people would know of that call and would leak its substance…or just one person who made up the story.

…and either by sloppiness or intent, the authors or their editors just told us who it is.

The officer described Admiral Caudle in terms that matched Mr. Hegseth’s view of the values that military officers should embody.

The Chief of Staff is a civilian. Retired military, yes, but a civilian now. He is not an “officer”.

That leaves the Deputy. As in all things, I reserve the right to be wrong—but I very much doubt that the Deputy Commander of USFF (that is the acronym we are using now, isn’t it?) called to pitch his boss to Hegseth at the behest of Caudle.

With every paragraph, this hit-piece becomes less credible.

Before the defense secretary had even taken office, he had publicly singled out Admiral Franchetti as someone he believed had been promoted solely because of her gender. She knew that if Mr. Hegseth was confirmed, she would likely be fired.

In December 2024, Admiral Franchetti called together the Navy’s four-star admirals to discuss potential replacements, officials said.

She reminded them that their most important job in the coming weeks was to put the Navy’s integrity and its reputation as an apolitical institution ahead of their ambitions, according to people familiar with the meeting.

…

After Mr. Hegseth fired Admiral Franchetti, senior Navy officials, led by the service’s acting secretary, assembled a list of the three officers they believed were best qualified to fill her position. Admiral Caudle was not on it. Navy leaders thought he was better suited to lead the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the country’s nuclear arsenal, the officials said.

Just three? A list chosen by a group of leaders largely responsible for the state of the Navy at that moment in time?

I would hope that list would be ignored.

Even though Admiral Caudle was not on a list of candidates recommended by senior Navy officials, Mr. Hegseth chose him for the job.

…

His path to that position is a case study in how the military promotion process at the Pentagon under Mr. Hegseth has deviated from tradition, leaving it susceptible in the view of critics to politicization and favoritism.

I’m sorry, just look at how General Caine, USAF was chosen for the CJCS job. Look at how Admiral Burke, USN was chosen for CNO. Look at how Admiral King and General Marshall ran their plucking boards…heck, and how Eisenhower was pulled up to high command.

Tradition? Picking deep or from a distant corner is part of our tradition…and has a very good track record. The authors know this. If not, they should be shifted over to the arts and leisure section of the Sunday edition.

Now that the authors have called into question both the man and the process, this is where they make an effort to dirty him up.

Before Admiral Caudle’s nomination could be sent to the White House, the inspector general had to complete its investigation, which had languished for more than a year. Sailors recalled Admiral Caudle telling them in an informal conversation at an awards banquet that the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program needed to focus more on helping troops avoid risky behavior.

Oh, an IG. Everyone knows this game. My view of our disgracefully dysfunctional I.G. has been consistent for decades. Root and branch reform is the only thing that will fix it. Telling me someone is under an IG does little more than make my sympathetic to them.

We all have stories to tell about the Navy IG—one I have firsthand knowledge of is a gobsmackingly unethical practice by one of the people who used to run it. It sounds unbelievable what he got away with, but he did and got promoted in spite of it. We put a fox in charge of the henhouse. Buy me a drink or three sometime and I’ll tell you the story.

Before Admiral Caudle’s nomination could be sent to the White House, the inspector general had to complete its investigation, which had languished for more than a year.

…

The inspector general found the allegations of wrongdoing to be unsubstantiated, and Admiral Caudle took over as the 34th chief of naval operations last summer.

"Unsubstantiated”.

Many such cases.

However, the damage was done. No accountability for false or misleading accusations.

Of course.

Look at that timeline. We had a rather simple but exceptionally dangerous accusation against a four-star languishing with the Navy IG’s fonctionnaires for over a year?

In the first year after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Navy fought and won:

• Battle of the Coral Sea

• Battle of Midway

• Guadalcanal Campaign

We also invaded North Africa.

Over a year this sat. Outrageous we still allow such a dysfunctional organization to hang like a sword over the head of everyone.

What were the details of the charge?

According to the sailors, Admiral Caudle offered examples: If he strode naked through the forest, coated in honey, he should not be surprised if he were attacked by a bear, officials said. If he wore gold chains and a fancy watch on a visit to Harlem, he risked getting robbed. At least one sailor believed Admiral Caudle was blaming assault victims for provoking their attacks.

When was that comment allegedly made? 2023? 2022?

I will grant you that nukes are a strange bunch, submariners on top of that, but I’ve been around a bit, am just a few years younger than the CNO, come from the same cultural background, and have never heard a senior leader—especially after 1991—make any comment remotely like this. Even if he did...is this what the Navy IG picked its belly button with for over a year…and then dismissed it? This could be cleared up in a fortnight. It should have been. The fact is wasn’t should tell you more than what you want to know about the Navy IG.

Firing everyone is the moderate option.

The article then goes into detail about Caudle getting civilian counsel.

Over the years, quite a few readers, friends and acquaintances here have reached out to me for advice here and there. Most of the time, I answer—correctly—that I am not the best person to ask, but persons Y and Z might be.

Some found themselves under the unblinking eye of an inspector general or a criminal issue. My advice to them was always short: “Do not rely on the good graces of our Navy’s JAGs, legal process, or your Chain of Command. Hire the best civilian attorney with experience in this matter and working with the military legal system that you can afford. Innocent or guilty, Fair or unfair, I don’t care, and neither does the Navy. Get that legal team now. You can buy good legal counsel now, but you cannot buy your freedom or a good name later.”

A large portion of the article focuses on the aforementioned civilian attorney Caudle hired, Timothy Parlamore. To be direct, the story and the nudge-nudge of it all are not convincing and is not worth my time. Read it yourself and put your thoughts in the comments if you wish.

“The left captured the military quickly, and we must reclaim it at a faster pace,” he wrote in his 2024 book, “The War on Warriors.” “We must wage a frontal assault, a swift counterattack, in broad daylight.”

This throw away line quoting Hegseth was unneeded, but was probably thought to be cat-nip to the Mamdani-voting subscribers to the paper. Anyway, let’s go there with the authors.

Make no mistake, DC attracts officers of a leftist bent. Not all the senior officers you find in DC are leftists, but their proportions are wildly skewed to the general population of that cohort. As a rule, the more years a General or Flag Officer (GOFO) has intentionally tried to get DC jobs, the more suspect they should be. Even if they show up in DC as apolitical or of center-right thinking—as we see with all but the most intellectually resilient persons—just soaking in the politically unbalanced DC area will pull people to the left. Besides marrying a leftist, the quickest way for someone to become left of center is to have them live for any length of time in DC.

Also understand that the most political GOFO out there know each other and help shape the careers of “their projects”. I am still amazed that even after the 2024 election, some of the most rabidly leftist political Flag Officers—not the hidden ones, the ones out and loud during peak-woke (but then when the tide changed, deleted their twitter profiles)—were not just given additional stars, but were put in significant positions in DC, right where they want to be. Instead of being offered important jobs in, say, the Mariana Islands, they are kept inside the castle walls, positioning and promoting their fellow travelers, while spiking and sidelining anyone to the right of Governor Shapiro of Pennsylvania.

They have not changed. Heck, I saw one of the worst of them it in action at the last SNA Symposium a few months ago. Their OPSEC is as bad as their politics, but its working for them.

It is a legit issue and has no equivalent structure on the right. Hegseth is not totally out of bounds with that quote.

Let’s get out of that rabbit hole. We actually have someone who will go on the record.

Capt. Dave Hecht, a spokesman for Admiral Caudle, said in a statement to The New York Times that the admiral planned to limit his discussion with Mr. Hegseth to “factual, operational matters.”

He said that Admiral Caudle’s interactions with Mr. Hegseth always focused on military, not political, issues. “Adm. Caudle has consistently conducted himself in a professional, nonpartisan manner throughout his career,” Captain Hecht’s statement added.

I have heard nothing else about Caudle from those who know him that is anything different. I run in some political circles, and have for two decades. When Caudle was announced, I asked around, and people much more political than I am replied with a roughly common answer, “Don’t know much about him.” or, “I’ve briefed him. Standard issue nuke. I have no opinion.”

As I stated at the top, I’ve been as aggressively neutral with Caudle as I was with Franchetti. From here on out, I don’t think I will be. It is now clear to me that he is accumulating all the right enemies. I don’t care if it is earned or that he just appears to be a useful tool to the mil-left bitter-clingers and diversity Cicadas that infest the Pentagon to this day. As such, he gets every benefit of the doubt from here on out.

He’s earned it.

Oh, and I still see him as apolitical and have no idea—and don’t care really—who if anyone he votes for or which if any political party he is part of.

One of the best Flag Officers I served under on staff was an open Bill Bradley Democrat and I’d trust him with the lives of my children.

That hyper-political types that infest the Potomac Flotilla? They are not, on balance, like that.

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