CNO wrongly linked to retired chief’s Web diatribe

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Subject: CNO wrongly linked to retired chief's Web diatribe

http://www.navytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1052770.php

CNO wrongly linked to retired chief's Web diatribe

Call it a case of mistaken identity between chiefs. An opinion piece critical of armed forces management, the media and the public written by a retired Navy chief petty officer and circulated on the Internet, somehow became attributed to the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Mike Mullen.

But the Navy's top sailor had nothing to do with it. (More)

CNO wrongly linked to retired chief’s Web diatribe

By Andrew Scutro
NavyTimes staff writer
24 August 2005

Call it a case of mistaken identity between chiefs. An opinion piece critical of armed forces management, the media and the public written by a retired Navy chief petty officer and circulated on the Internet, somehow became attributed to the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Mike Mullen.

But the Navy’s top sailor had nothing to do with it.A March 14 piece titled “The Wrong Army” is not connected in anyway to the CNO, according to his spokesman Cmdr. John Kirby.“The text that’s being e-mailed around as a CNO speech is not, in fact, a speech or text that Adm. Mullen has drafted or delivered,” Kirby said.

“It’s apparently an opinion piece written by a retired Navy chief petty officer.” The source of the confusion may originate from the message being forwarded and renamed. At first the piece was a subject of discussion on an Internet forum and was named  “The Wrong Army.” Then it was titled “Navy Chief lets loose a broadside.”

As an email forward it became “Chief of Naval Operations Speech.” Kirby said the matter could have arisen because the CNO is sometimes also called the Navy chief.“I do not know how it got to be characterized as a product of the CNO, but it is certainly not a speech written or given by Admiral Mullen,” he said.

Jeff Edwards, the retired chief who wrote “The Wrong Army,” said he was unaware of the fuss caused by his column when contacted by Navy Times but said he was amused that he’d been confused with the Navy’s top leader. Edwards is the author of a novel on naval surface warfare called “Torpedo.” He also has a Navy-centric Web site.
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Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)