Kelsey Baker, Military and Defense Reporting Fellow

The US Navy sacked a destroyer captain after a ship collision. The incident spotlighted the risks of resupplies at sea.

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The US Navy abruptly fired the commander of guided-missile destroyer USS Truxtun after his ship collided with a logistics vessel during a resupply operation at sea earlier this month.

Rear Adm. Carlos Sardiello, who leads US Naval Forces Southern Command and 4th Fleet, relieved Cmdr. James Koffi on Sunday.

The ship collision that resulted in a “loss of confidence” and cost Koffi his command occurred during a replenishment-at-sea operation involving USNS Supply, a fast combat support ship, the Navy said in a statement on the relief.

The cause of the ship collision remains under investigation but highlights the risks of at-sea logistics and the challenges of keeping naval forces on the move.

Replenishments-at-sea are resupplies in which one ship sails closely alongside another to transfer supplies such as fuel or ammunition. These missions are routine operations that support global naval activity by allowing vessels to remain at sea, rather than forcing them to return to port.

At-sea replenishments carry risks, though, that can be exacerbated by a range of factors beyond proximity, such as sea state, crew fatigue, communication breakdowns, and equipment failures.

Two personnel sustained minor injuries during the February 11 collision between the Truxton and Supply.

Koffi, who took over the Truxtun just over a year ago, has been reassigned to Commander, Naval Surface Group Middle Atlantic. The Truxton, which had been deployed for under a month when the ship collision happened, is in port in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The Navy said the ship is undergoing repairs.

Cmdr. Taylor Auclair, who most recently served at US Fleet Forces Command, has been assigned to command the Truxtun.

“The Navy maintains the highest standards for leaders and holds them accountable when those standards are not met,” the Navy said in a press release.

A near-miss during a resupply in 2024 resulted in the relief of the commander of USS John S. McCain, another destroyer. And last year, the Navy relieved the captain of an aircraft carrier after it collided with a civilian merchant vessel during a deployment that experienced a string of major accidents, including the loss of three fighter jets, including one to a friendly-fire incident.

The Truxton deployed to Caribbean waters as part of President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against Venezuela and narcotics trafficking. The administration sent nearly a dozen warships, among other combat assets, to the region late last year. The military launched strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats, seized oil tankers, and carried out a January raid inside Venezuela that resulted in the capture of its former president, Nicolás Maduro.

More recently, roughly a dozen Navy warships have been directed to the Middle East as the administration has shifted focus to a ballooning buildup in the region. As of last week, the Truxton is now one of just five ships remaining in the Caribbean




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FCC Chair Brendan Carr responds to Stephen Colbert, calling incident ‘Democrat on Democrat violence’

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Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr said it’s “fake news” to suggest that the government pressured CBS to pull a Democratic lawmaker’s interview from Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show” earlier this week.

Carr addressed the latest flash point moment between broadcasters and the FCC in his Wednesday remarks during the commission’s February open meeting, saying there was “no censorship by the government here.”

Speaking to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Wednesday evening, Carr doubled down, describing the incident as “Democrat on Democrat violence,” rather than evidence that the commission had pressured CBS not to air the interview.

Instead, Carr said, CBS’s advice to “The Late Show” not to air an interview with James Talarico, a Democratic Texas state representative running for a hotly contested US Senate seat, was an appropriate response to prevent the commission from enforcing its equal time rule.

The equal time rule requires TV and radio broadcast stations to provide equivalent airtime opportunities to legally qualified political candidates, or risk fines or, potentially, the revocation of their broadcast license. The rule does not apply to bona fide newscasts, interviews, or on-the-spot news.

The rule has rarely been applied in recent decades. Broadcasters had generally understood a 2006 FCC ruling to mean that interviews on daytime and late-night talk shows were exempt from the rule. However, the FCC said in revised guidance sent to stations last month that “This is not the case.”

“Perhaps Colbert and other establishment Democrats want to put the thumb on the scale in this Democrat primary for one candidate over the other,” Carr told Ingraham. “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask them, but we’re going to enforce the law and hold broadcasters accountable.”

Carr told reporters during the FCC’s open meeting that the commission was pursuing “enforcement actions” against the talk show “The View” over its broadcast of an interview with Talarico.

“What we’re doing now is simply applying the law on the books in an even-handed manner, and for people that benefited from a two-tier system of justice during the Biden years, they may feel like that’s weaponization, but that doesn’t make it so,” Carr told Ingraham.

Representatives for Fox News, CBS, The Late Show, and the campaigns of Talarico and primary opponent Jasmine Crockett did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider. The FCC pointed to Carr’s remarks during the open meeting when reached for comment.

CBS previously said in a statement that it did not specifically prohibit “The Late Show” from broadcasting the interview, but that it did provide the show with legal guidance.

Colbert, who has hosted “The Late Show” since 2015, told his viewers on Monday that CBS lawyers said “in no uncertain terms” that his late-night talk show could not air the interview with Talarico. He also said he was told not to acknowledge the decision on air, which prompted his decision to post the interview on YouTube.

By the time of Carr’s appearance on The Ingraham Angle, Colbert’s interview with Talarico had received more than 3.8 million views — significantly more than other recent interviews, which average between about 75,000 and 510,000 views.

Rep. Crockett, a Democrat running against Talarico, said during a Tuesday appearance on “The Briefing with Jen Psaki” likely gave her primary rival a “boost.”

In a Wednesday social media post, Talarico’s campaign confirmed that the fervor around the incident had a positive effect, saying it had raised $2.5 million in 24 hours after the Colbert interview was scrapped.




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