Now-Capt. Lester Brown, center, was fired as the commanding officer of the San Diego division of the Navy Leadership and Ethics Center. (Seaman Ryan U. Kledzik/U.S. Navy)
The Navy fired the commanding officer of its San Diego division of the Navy Leadership and Ethics Center, the service announced Wednesday.
Capt. Lester Brown Jr. was relieved Wednesday by Capt. Shawn Bailey, commander of the Navy Leadership and Ethics Center headquarters. Brown was relieved “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command,” the Navy said in a statement.
The U.S. military routinely cites only a vague “loss of confidence” when removing commanders and other leaders from authority positions.
The leadership and ethics center is tasked with providing training and education for officers not yet in command as well as courses for the Navy’s enlisted leader development program. It is headquartered at Naval Station Newport, R.I., with subordinate locations in San Diego and Virginia Beach, Va.
Brown assumed command in San Diego in September 2022. His biography was removed from the Navy’s website by Wednesday afternoon.
Brown is a decorated officer with 28 years of service, according to records provided by the Navy. He was commissioned as an officer in 1996 upon graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md. His career spans assignments aboard the amphibious ship USS Anchorage, the frigate USS Sides, the mine countermeasures ship USS Patriot, the guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea, and the destroyer USS McFaul.
In the years leading up to his job at the leadership school, Brown served in various roles at the Naval Surface Force Atlantic, U.S. Fleet Forces Command and the Naval Warfare Development Center.
Brown has received more than a dozen awards, including the Meritorious Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.
Brown was reassigned to the Pacific Fleet’s Naval Surface Force. Capt. Richard Zeber from the leadership school headquarters in Rhode Island was temporarily assigned to fill Brown’s role in San Diego.
