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Almost 30 years active duty in the AF and then 17 years teaching battle staff processes and decision making under stress for the Army. The Commander is the Commander and must make the decision that is right for the mission and the assigned personnel. The Captain of the Truman had multiple SECURE communications systems that could be used to transmit information all the way to the National Command Authority. If he believed that the safety of his crew was in jeopardy he had the responsibility to notify the chain of command. If his immediate superior did not take action then he should (and apparently did) go the next level. However divulging the fact that a major weapon system was or was on the verge of becoming combat ineffective MUST go over a secure system only to KEY personnel immediately in the chain of command. One of the things I always stressed to students regarding military operations was "Who else needs to know." However, the emphasis is on NEEDS to know. The general public and more importantly our potential enemies have NO NEED TO KNOW that one of our few carriers and perhaps an entire Carrier Battle Group has a significantly reduced combat capability.

All that said, the Acting SECNAV acted totally inappropriately in flying out and speaking to the crew the way he did. Glad the SECDEF called him on it, he apologized and then resigned. Unfortunately, now the entire situation has become so politicized that a real, unbiased investigation into the Captain's actions is almost impossible.