The executive officer of the Japan-based warship McCampbell has been relieved of duty.
The guided-missile destroyer’s XO since February, Lt. Cmdr. Randall Clemons was removed “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to fulfill his responsibilities,” Task Force 70 spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Matt Knight said in an email to Navy Times.
Knight said there was no investigation preceding Clemons’ relief and he has been reassigned to Destroyer Squadron 15 in Japan by its commander, Capt. Jonathan Duffy.
“Lt. Cmdr. Clemons’ performance has been evaluated by leadership at multiple levels and it was determined he was consistently not meeting the high standards which is expected of an executive officer,” Knight said.
Clemons could not be reached by Navy Times for comment on Tuesday.
DESRON 15′s chief staff officer, Lt. Cmdr. Chris Bland, has been named as his replacement.
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Clemons served as XO of the sister Arleigh Burke-class destroyer Fitzgerald from August 2017 to December 2017 — after the ship collided with a commercial vessel off Japan in June of that year, killing seven sailors.
On Tuesday, the Pentagon announced three command triad reliefs.
Superiors fired Capt. Tadd Gorman as the commanding officer of the guided-missile cruiser Antietam, while the XO of the fast attack submarine Jimmy Carter, Lt. Cmdr. Jonathan Cebik, also was removed from his post.
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Geoff is the managing editor of Military Times, but he still loves writing stories. He covered Iraq and Afghanistan extensively and was a reporter at the Chicago Tribune. He welcomes any and all kinds of tips at geoffz@militarytimes.com.
