Richard Vaughn Spencer (18 January 1954-) was US Secretary of the Navy from 3 August 2017 to 24 November 2019, succeeding Sean Stackley and preceding Thomas Modly; he was also acting Secretary of Defense from 15 to 23 July 2019 (interrupting Mark Esper's terms). He was fired by Esper later that year following his controversial handling of the Eddie Gallagher case.
Biography[]
Richard Vaughn Spencer was born in Waterbury, Connecticut on 18 January 1954, and he served as a US Marine Corps aviator from 1976 to 1981. He worked on Wall Street for 15 years after his retirement from the Marines, and, in 2017, President Donald Trump appointed him Secretary of the Navy. In November 2019, he tried to cut a secret deal with the White House to let the accused war criminal Eddie Gallagher retire, and his controversial handling of the case led to Secretary of Defense Mike Esper firing him on 24 November.