Navy Fires Executive Officer of Pay and Personnel Support Center Amid Investigation

The Navy confirmed Friday that it removed the executive officer of a command responsible for ensuring sailors have accurate pay and allowances amid an ongoing investigation.

Cmdr. Brandon DeHaan, the executive officer of the Navy Pay and Personnel Support Center, or NPPSC, was relieved Sept. 1 by Rear Adm. Stuart Satterwhite "due to a loss of confidence in his ability to fulfill responsibilities as executive officer," Lt. Cmdr. John Stevens, a spokesman for the MyNavy Career Center, told Military.com.

The service did not publicly announce DeHaan's removal and has previously said that its policy is only to confirm firings of executive officers and command master chiefs when asked. However, he appears to be at least the second executive officer to be fired by the Navy this year.

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Stevens confirmed that "there was an investigation that resulted in the administrative reassignment of Cmdr. DeHaan" but added that "it would be inappropriate to discuss possible future action at this time."

Lt. Cmdr. Leonardo Nicasio, the current acting director of Human Resources Service Center, will take over as executive officer of NPPSC while DeHaan has been administratively reassigned to higher headquarters in Millington, Tennessee, Stevens said.

The firing comes as the Navy attempts to deal with the fallout of a modernization effort of its pay and personnel systems. Those efforts resulted in pay and allowance backlogs for sailors in various parts of the fleet and, last year, snarled the Navy's ability to generate key discharge paperwork for sailors leaving the service.

In April, Vice Adm. Rick Cheeseman, the officer who oversees the Navy's entire personnel infrastructure, told Military.com that many of the backlogs have been cleared but admitted there was still work to be done.

According to an official biography, DeHaan joined the Navy in 1996 as a "personnelman" -- a job that is now known as personnel specialist -- and achieved the rank of chief petty officer before earning his commission in 2006 as a general administration officer.

As an officer, he served aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard, Essex and John Stennis. He also served as the flag secretary to two different leaders in the office of the chief of naval operations -- the Navy's top officer.

Prior to becoming the executive officer of NPPSC, DeHaan went to a two-week course at the Naval Leadership and Ethics Center in Newport, Rhode Island, in the spring of 2022.

His personal awards include three Meritorious Service Medals, five Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals, and four Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, among numerous other campaign and unit awards.

-- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin.

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