McCain warship incident raises questions about changing military culture
By Dan Lamothe , Missy Ryan and Paul Sonne
May 30 at 6:49 PM
... White House efforts to obscure the USS John S. McCain ahead of .. Trump’s visit to Japan .. raised new questions about whether the military’s culture is changing ...
White House and Pentagon officials suggested .. lower-level staff had been trying to satisfy the political predilections of the president without high-level orders. Navy officials Wednesday confirmed that a member of the White House staff sent a message to military officials in the Pacific asking them to keep the destroyer out of photos when Trump made a .. visit to .. Yokosuka ...
... Trump denied ordering any steps to hide the ship ...
Acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan also denied that he knew about the effort ... However, it is not clear who else in Shanahan’s office might have known or whether it was kept from Shanahan, whose nomination must still be confirmed ...
... Shanahan said his chief of staff, Eric Chewning, would investigate ...
The Navy’s top officer, Adm. John Richardson, said ... “It goes without saying” that service members are expected to remain apolitical ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/mccain-warship-incident-raises-questions-about-a-changing-military-culture-under-trump/2019/05/30/c353c582-1180-4e75-9310-fd2cc1178d82_story.html?utm_term=.687ac936ced5