“Good order and discipline is the foundation for every military organization, and it is a leadership responsibility,” he wrote. “As Commander, I own it. As Commodores, you also own it. We must now take a proactive approach to prevent the next breach of ethical and professional behavior.”

The admiral told his officers to get the urgency of his message across to everyone in Naval Special Warfare. “I want all hands to understand that we have a problem, and that this is our main effort and my top priority,” he wrote.

On Wednesday, Vice Adm. Michael Gilday, President Trump’s choice to be the next chief of naval operations, said the Navy SEAL incidents are being investigated, and he would deal with the root causes behind them and hold people accountable.

“If there is a problem with the culture of the community,” Admiral Gilday told senators at his confirmation hearing to be the Navy’s top officer, it will be “addressed very quickly and very firmly.”

In the week before Adm. Green wrote his letter, an entire SEAL platoon was abruptly pulled out of a deployment in Iraq over reports of an alcohol-fueled party and an allegation that a senior enlisted member had raped a female service member attached to the platoon. Navy Times reported widespread cocaine use among members of a Virginia-based SEAL team, who were said to consider the Navy’s drug testing efforts “a joke.”