The Navy fired the commander of one of its guided missile submarines — the third submarine firing in the last seven months — according to a press release on Wednesday.
The commanding officer of the USS Ohio sub’s gold crew — Capt. Kurt Balagna — was relieved by Rear Adm. Nicholas Tilbrook, the commander of Submarine Group 9, “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command,” the Navy said. Balagna appears to be the third Navy commander relieved this year. However, since last September, Navy leaders have fired the skippers of the USS Georgia and USS Alabama as well. Navy officials have previously said that in 2023, the service relieved 15 commanding officers. The Navy’s statement did not offer any more information about why Balagna was removed from leadership, outside of the boilerplate “loss of confidence” remark.
A Navy official told Military.com that the relief was “related to conduct rather than performance” but would not offer any additional details. The Ohio is homeported in Bangor, Washington. According to Balagna’s official biography, he enlisted in the Navy in 1992 as a nuclear electronics technician before earning his commission in 1997 through a ROTC program.
