The head of Mobile’s U.S. Navy League chapter rebuked the cancellation of a rear admiral’s plans to keynote a local celebration of the U.S. Navy’s 250th birthday as “total chickens**t” in light of Navy-supported festivities happening around the country.

Pete Riehm, the president of the Mobile Council of the U.S. Navy League, had harsh words for the leadership of the country’s maritime military branch after Rear Admiral Mark Schafer told the organization Thursday morning he cannot speak at the Navy League’s annual celebration of the branch’s birthday on Sunday, Oct. 12. Schafer cancelled, claiming his superiors expressed concern about “bad optics.”

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