{"id":36232,"date":"2019-08-06T21:49:02","date_gmt":"2019-08-06T21:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/08\/06\/inside-the-historic-decision-to-deep-select-the-navys-top-officer\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:42:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:42:46","slug":"inside-the-historic-decision-to-deep-select-the-navys-top-officer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/08\/06\/inside-the-historic-decision-to-deep-select-the-navys-top-officer\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the historic decision to deep-select the Navy\u2019s top officer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On the morning of Feb. 18, 1991, the guided-missile cruiser Princeton<\/a> inched closer to the Kuwaiti shoreline, using the world\u2019s most advanced sensors to sniff for Iraqi Silkworm sites, transforming itself into what its crew called a \u201cmissile sponge\u201d to protect a gathering armada behind it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then two explosions erupted under the port rudder and near the starboard bow and everyone went to general quarters on a cruiser dead in the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three sailors were wounded. Damage control teams rushed to contain the deluge from internal pipes that broke open. A cut in power stopped the air conditioning, which knocked out the Aegis radar and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles, leaving the mighty warship defenseless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lt. Michael Martin Gilday<\/a> was the tactical action officer on a vessel that struck two of the 1,000 mines strung in an underwater arc stretching 150 miles, from the Persian Gulf\u2019s Faylaka Island<\/a> to the Saudi border, officials later determined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But 15 minutes after the detonations, Gilday and his crew had restored the TLAM and Aegis systems and returned the Princeton to its place as the flotilla\u2019s anti-air ringleader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And they remained at their battle stations for another harrowing 30 hours until the wounded warship could be towed out of the minefield, according to the citation attached to his 1991 Navy Commendation Medal with Valor device, which notes his courageous leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was responsible for our command and control of our communications with the rest of the world, as well as the security of the combat systems,\u201d said retired Capt. Edward B. \u201cTed\u201d Hontz, the commander of the Princeton during Operation Desert Storm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was a wartime guy and did a superb job,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gilday \u201ctook care of his job,\u201d Hontz continued. \u201cHe took care of his people, extremely professional. He was a calm, cool customer, and at the time \u2014 in my opinion as an officer at the end of my career \u2014 was … as cool a character as you can get, he\u2019s so good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hontz pegged Gilday as a future three-star but conceded \u201cit appears he\u2019s going to exceed my hopes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
With the use of hand flares, the minesweeper Adroit marks possible mines in an effort to extract the already damaged guided-missile cruiser Princeton from a minefield. The salvage and rescue ship Beaufort stands by to assist. (Painting by John Charles Roach\/ U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Aug. 1, the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Gilday as the 32nd chief of naval operations and granted him a fourth star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019d been deep-selected from the ranks of vice admirals, a promotion unseen since 1970 but one that surprised few of those who\u2019ve watched him rise from a lowly U.S. Naval Academy plebe 38 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe most important thing is, if there\u2019s there\u2019s an officer who walks on water, who\u2019s a superstar, usually there\u2019s an element of ego that goes along with that. And you never got that from Mike,\u201d said Joe Wright, an Academy classmate and the navigator of the Princeton off the coast of Kuwait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he has a story about Gilday\u2019s valor award, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo we were in the CO\u2019s cabin,\u201d Wright recalled. \u201cThis was after everything that happened. And we\u2019re in dry dock in Dubai. And I happen to notice, there was a clipboard with a list of names and proposed decorations for people. And I saw it was there. Then I saw Mike pick it up and crossed off his own name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd I don\u2019t think he knew that I saw him do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Then-Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Bill Moran in Times Square on May 25 during Fleet Week. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kyle Hafer\/Navy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bad Santa<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gilday, 56, never could have anticipated his rapid elevation to replace Adm. John Richardson, who is retiring as the sea service\u2019s top officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A change of command ceremony had been planned for Aug. 1 in Annapolis, with former Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Bill Moran fleeting up to become CNO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Confirmed without a whiff of scandal by the Senate, Moran was derailed by reports of an ongoing Pentagon probe<\/a> into emails he allegedly exchanged with his former spokesman, Chris Servello.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although he was never charged with a crime and has long professed his innocence, Servello\u2019s own career foundered in late 2016 after he was accused of sexually-tinged shenanigans while dressed as Santa Claus at a boozy Pentagon holiday party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A surprise July 7 announcement by Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer axed Moran\u2019s promotion and began a process to find his replacement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spencer told Navy Times that he and CNO Richardson didn\u2019t want to dragoon one of the Navy\u2019s eight four-stars on active duty, believing that they held critical billets overseas and at home and couldn\u2019t be replaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spencer believed there was \u201ca pretty good bench\u201d of vice admirals but Gilday \u2014 the director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for a year \u2014 \u201cstarted shining like a diamond.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spencer was drawn to the four years Gilday spent at Cyber Command inside Maryland\u2019s Fort Meade before he went to the Pentagon. He wanted to find someone with an acute knowledge of cyberwarfare as his next CNO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But first he had to canvass the opinions of former SECNAVs and CNOs about Gilday. When they heartily endorsed the vice admiral, Spencer began talking to four-stars outside the sea service, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., told him, \u201cI\u2019d never let him go for any other opportunity but to help the Navy in the position of CNO,\u201d Spencer recollected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gen. David L. Goldfein, the Air Force\u2019s chief of staff, strongly supported Gilday\u2019s promotion and so did his counterpart in the Army, Mark A. Milley, who was soon to be confirmed as Dunford\u2019s replacement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll the marks came back A+,\u201d Spencer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in the back of his mind, Spencer still struggled with deep-selecting a three-star for CNO, something that hadn\u2019t been done since Secretary of the Navy John Chafee and President Richard Nixon recalled Vice Adm. Elmo \u201cBud\u201d Zumwalt Jr. from Vietnam to serve as the top naval officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zumwalt leaped over 33 more senior officers but proved Chafee right. Today he\u2019s remembered as one of the most inspiring and innovative CNOs to have held the post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Marine Corps veteran, Spencer told Navy Times that he couldn\u2019t be blind to naval history and tradition, and choosing Gilday became a \u201cweighty\u201d decision \u201cbecause this was a significant movement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Convinced that Gilday was the best officer for the job, he took his proposal to the Pentagon and the Oval Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that President Donald J. Trump also understood the historical moment and wanted consensus from his military leaders that this three-star was the right person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president said, \u201cGot it. Understood,\u201d Spencer recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They had their nominee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Adm. Elmo R. Zumwalt speaks with the Human Relations Council, at Fleet Activities Yokosuka in Japan on July 2, 1971. A deep selection recalled from Vietnam to serve as CNO, Zumwalt left a lasting legacy on the sea service. (U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Historical moment<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retired Adm. Jim Stavridis was NATO commander when then-Rear Adm. Gilday served on the staff of the Allied Joint Force in Lisbon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A student of history, Stavridis isn\u2019t surprised by Spencer\u2019s decision to elevate Gilday because he sees signs of both Zumwalt and Arleigh Burke in the new CNO\u2019s career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dwight D. Eisenhower promoted Rear Adm. Arleigh Burke over 92 flag officers to become his CNO in 1955.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe has the innovation credentials of Zumwalt in his work as 10th Fleet commander on cyber, especially in harnessing it for offensive operations. His distinguished destroyer background is reminiscent of Arleigh Burke,\u201d said Stavridis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before he commanded Carrier Strike Group 8, Gilday led Destroyer Squadron 7 and the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers Benfold and Higgins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut ultimately, he is his own distinct leader, and his defining quality is humility. Quiet, thoughtful, kind, and blessed with a self-deprecating sense of humor, he leads without ego or hubris. He is a perfect choice as CNO for today\u2019s Navy,\u201d Stavridis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Midshipman Michael Gilday (U.S. Naval Academy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Son of a sailor<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That self-deprecation might stem from his blue collar roots, sailors and officers told Navy Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gilday is the son of a sailor, and he grew up in an Irish Catholic family of five in Lowell, Massachusetts, according to his Naval Academy yearbook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Annapolis, he was known as \u201cCrash\u201d or \u201cSquire Mike,\u201d the sort of midshipman who drank 10,000 cups of coffee and dipped a thousand cans of Copenhagen before he graduated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And graduation in 1985 didn\u2019t always seem a likely outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The yearbook notes that he was sent to \u201cac-board,\u201d an academic program to shore up substandard performance, before he put it all together and stitched on three stripes as the regimental adjutant \u2014 a top leadership post for midshipmen \u2014 and made the superintendent\u2019s list of top performers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe probably wasn\u2019t the smartest of the guys in our company but by any measure he was probably the hardest working of all of us put together,\u201d said classmate Dan Holzrichter, who commissioned as a Marine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was a very intense person, too, whether it was studying or playing ultimate frisbee. Whatever he did, he brought that intensity to it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with the intensity came attention to detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou would open up his medicine cabinet and everything would be lined up, from smallest to largest. So if you wanted to mess with him, you\u2019d move things around,\u201d Holzrichter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A poster of a Navy Times cover titled “Worst Orders Ever?” is propped behind then-Vice Adm. Michael Gilday during his July 31 testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill. ( Andrew Harnik\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the fleet<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the traits that made Gilday a successful midshipman followed him to the fleet after he commissioned as a surface warfare officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three years behind him at the Academy, Jerry Dickerson was a lieutenant junior grade serving as the officer of the deck when Princeton detonated the two manta mines in 1991. When they went to general quarters, he reported to Gilday inside the Combat Information Center \u2014 the electronic nerve center of the warship \u2014 and watched his leadership under pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe always led by example, from out front, and there was no tolerance for us not performing at a very high level. It was very clear all the time, I felt, that I was being led by Mike Gilday. But his leadership wasn\u2019t in a dictatorial way. It was kind of a \u2018I\u2019m going to lead from out front and you guys better keep up with me\u2019 kind of style,\u201d Dickerson recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time Gilday rose to executive officer on the sister Ticonderoga-class cruiser Gettysburg, he\u2019d evolved into a highly intelligent and inspiring leader, retired Rear Adm. Jacob Shuford, the warship\u2019s former CO, recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shuford commanded three vessels and a strike group and never met a better XO or chief of staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s really an extraordinary person,\u201d Shuford said. \u201cHe\u2019s smart as a whip, really knows the Navy and has a strong set of values he\u2019s developed in his life. You put someone like that in any job and they\u2019re going to be great. And, of course, he would be the last to toot his own horn. In fact, he doesn\u2019t do it at all. That\u2019s Michael Gilday.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t