On his first full day on the job, newly sworn-in Secretary of the Navy John Phelan toured ships and aircraft supporting the Defense Department’s expanded presence on the U.S. southern border.
Phelan started the trip in Corpus Christi, Texas, and met with sailors assigned to Patrol Squadron 26 before flying aboard a P-8A Poseidon. The service has used the anti-submarine aircraft for anti-trafficking maritime operations.
Following the P-8A flight, Phelan flew aboard an MH-60S Knight Hawk to USS Gravely (DDG-107) along with U.S. Fleet Forces commander Adm. Daryl Caudle. Gravely deployed to the waters off the Gulf Coast with a Coast Guard law enforcement detachment on March 17. The guided-missile destroyers is one of two dispatched to support President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for increased border enforcement. USS Spruance (DDG-111) also deployed to the region from San Diego, Calif., with a Coast Guard law enforcement detachment.
It was a privilege making my first trip at sea aboard USS Gravely, the first warship to patrol the Gulf of America. The American people can rest easier knowing this incredible, combat-tested crew has the watch.
@SECDEF, @DHS, @CBP, @USNAVY, @USCG, @USMC pic.twitter.com/jn5qiO42uz
— Secretary of the Navy (@SECNAV) March 26, 2025
Phelan was confirmed on Monday and sworn in during a ceremony at the National Archives on Tuesday.
“It is an honor to be sworn in as the 79th Secretary of the Navy on the hallowed ground of our National Archives in the presence of America’s founding documents,” Phelan said in a Navy release. “I am deeply grateful to President Trump and the Senate for the opportunity to lead the Department of the Navy as we revitalize shipbuilding, sharpen our warfighting culture and recruit America’s finest sailors and Marines.”
Also on Wednesday, the Navy announced that Littoral Combat Ship USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul (LCS-21) was heading to U.S. Southern Command with a Coast Guard law enforcement detachment on its maiden deployment.
The Navy previously surged destroyers, Littoral Combat Ships and Expeditionary Fast Transport ships to the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific in the last major in 2020 for counter-drug missions, USNI News previously reported.
