By Daniel Wilson

Law360 (May 7, 2020, 6:11 PM EDT ) The nominee for Navy secretary blamed a "failure of leadership" for several recent Navy scandals on Wednesday, including a widespread bribery scheme and the contentious handling of a COVID-19 outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.

The Navy has a "tarnished" culture, Kenneth Braithwaite told a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He pledged to restore a strong culture to the Navy if confirmed to lead it, saying he had "been preparing my entire life for this moment."

"As a child of the Midwest, I was taught to be frank. ... It saddens me to say that the Department of the Navy is in rough waters, due to many factors, but primarily the failure of leadership," Braithwaite said.

Braithwaite, a Michigan native and former executive and Senate staffer who is now the U.S. ambassador to Norway, is also a retired rear admiral who spent nearly three decades in the Navy and Navy Reserve, retiring in 2011.

He specifically called out the "Fat Leonard" scandal that has seen dozens of Navy officers and sailors censured or criminally charged for accepting bribes to help steer lucrative ship "husbanding" contracts to former Navy contractor Glenn Defense Marine Asia, as well as two deadly 2017 collisions involving Navy ships, and "judicial missteps."

Braithwaite also brought up the Navy's controversial handling of a recent coronavirus outbreak aboard the USS Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier, which resulted in the ship's commanding officer Capt. Brett Crozier being relieved of duty after a letter he sent to Navy leaders, urging the evacuation of much of his crew amid the outbreak, was leaked to the media.

"They are all indicative of a breakdown in the trust of those leading the service," Braithwaite said.

On April 2, then-acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said that Crozier, although apparently acting in what he thought was his crew's best interests, had exercised poor judgment by sending his letter using unsecured email and to people outside his immediate superiors.

Then on April 5, Modly visited the Roosevelt, telling the crew in a speech — also publicly leaked — that if Crozier hadn't believed his letter would be made public, he was "too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this." Modly resigned two days later.

Braithwaite, responding to a question from Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., about restoring trust in Navy leadership, said he supported an ongoing investigation into the circumstances of the Roosevelt outbreak and Crozier's removal from duty. The investigation was recently called for by current acting Navy Secretary James McPherson, after McPherson said an initial probe had left unanswered questions.

The expanded probe would give the Navy a chance to "consider all the facts and then make the right decision," Braithwaite said.

But he implicitly rebuked Modly's decision to get involved in Crozier's fate as commanding officer of the Roosevelt, telling Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., that he would not intervene in similar personnel matters down the chain of command.

Kaine, who praised Braithwaite for his "unusual" and frank opening statement, had asked several questions about how the ambassador would handle various personnel matters, including suggesting Modly had "predetermined the investigation and made the decision on his own, apparently, without the agreement of [Navy chief Adm. Mike] Gilday to terminate Crozier."

That incident, as well as issues surrounding the recent high-profile war crimes trial for Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher, had "made me rethink the whole question of, what is the civilian secretary's responsibility — what should it be with respect to personnel matters?" Kaine said.

"I believe that our commanders, the COs of ships and commands, are vested with the responsibility to be accountable as well as to lead those who serve under their leadership, and I believe that they should be empowered to do such," Braithwaite said.

Alongside restoring the Navy's culture, Braithwaite, responding to a question from committee Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., about his plans for the naval fleet, said his goals for the Navy included furthering its ongoing push to achieve a 355-ship fleet — it now has fewer than 300 vessels — but suggested that in his eyes that was only a "minimal" target.

"Hopefully we build beyond that," he said.

"That's a good brief answer, I appreciate that — I won't ask why, because I agree with you," Inhofe said.

--Editing by John Campbell.

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