Talk:United States Secretary of the Navy

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October 2004

This page makes no mention as to how the Secretary of the Navy gets his job. I assume that he is appointed, but by who? The president? The Secretary of Defense? This is a rather important piece at's kind of a weird nomenclature - 256 Google hits vs 200,000 for "Secretary of the Navy" - and the nail in the coffin is the big lettering at [1]. I don't think any country has a "secretary" in charge of their navy, in which case just "Secretary of the Navy" would suffice. RADICALBENDER★ 15:12, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)

"Served under" categorization

Since the Secertary of the Air Force falls under the Secretary of Defense, the former directly serves the latter. Thus should we list the Secretary of Defense at the time under "Served under" rather than the President? The military revovles around reporting to your direct superior, even though the President is more widely known and of course the Commander in Chief. Minutiaman 22:45, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

No, I don't think so. The DON is defined (in this case) more by the reigning President, than the SecDef. If I'm looking up something for encyclopedic reasons, knowing who the president is more important to me than knowing who the SecDef was to that SecNav. If that is important to me, then all I have to do is go to the SecDef article for the periods of time that the SecNav served and make the comparison. SecNavs and SecDefs change within one administration (and rarely at the same time).--LeyteWolfer 22:04, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Dates for Ray Mabus

Hmm, have a seemingly reiable source for each of his swearing in dates. Which one is correct? — MrDolomite • Talk 16:10, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

• "Ray Mabus, former Mississippi governor and U.S. ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was sworn in May 19 as the 75th secretary of the Navy." [2]
• "WASHINGTON (June 18, 2009) Secretary of the Defense the Honorable Robert Gates, left, administers the Oath of Office to Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) the Honorable Ray Mabus during a ceremony at the Naval Support Activity Washington-Washington Navy Yard. Mabus, the former governor of Mississippi, is the 75th Secretary of the Navy." [3]

I am the author of the Navy.mil article. As it was explained to me at the time of Mabus' June 18 swearing in, the previous swearing in was considered unofficial but enough for Mabus to make some decisions. As far as the Department of Defense is concerned Mabus was sworn in officially on June 18, 2009. Interestingly Mabus was sworn in twice that day. The first June 18 swearing-in was at the White House and then he traveled to the Washington Navy Yard for the official ceremony in which instance the then Secretary of Defense Gates administered the oath, granting Mabus all the powers associated with the office.DLibrasnow (talk) 18:53, 23 February 2012 (UTC)