USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the vessels in her carrier strike group ship will now start receiving the first dosage of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine
“Receiving the COVID-19 vaccination is a great step in reinforcing the health and safety of our Sailors,” said Capt. Scott A. Jones, commander, Destroyer Squadron 22.
“Our overall success begins with quality care of our sailors on the frontlines.”
The vaccines will be administered by Commander, Naval Surface Forces Atlantic, say the U.S. Navy in a news release.
“The pandemic has challenged the Vella Gulf team in unprecedented and unique ways, but we continue to persevere in meeting every mission,” said Capt. Mike Desmond, Commanding Officer, USS Vella Gulf (CG 72).
“Being afforded this opportunity to receive the vaccine will better protect our Sailors while enabling us to maintain peak readiness as a resilient, capable and healthy naval force.”
The first round of the Moderna vaccine will be administered for units USS Monterey (CG 61), USS Vella Gulf (CG 72), USS Mitscher (DDG 57), and USS Mahan (DDG 72).
Hopefully members of the planned carrier strike group will receive the vaccine as well, before their deployment.
The virus has run rampant through US carriers.
The virus has not run rampant through US carriers. It ran rampant through the USS Theodore Roosevelt in 2020. The ship’s captain was fired and The task Force Commander (one star) had his promotion delayed. Three sailors on the TR tested positive for the virus on Monday.
Indeed on the TR over a two month period 1300 crew members contracted the disease, several hundred were put on Oxygen and one died. The ships captain was fired for emailing the other captains on board and a couple of admiral adjutants pleading for permission to offload the crew, that email was leaked. In the 2nd review board he was cleared of the charge of leaking the email but the decision of the sacking was upheld saying he had unnecessarily kept crew onboard the ship, despite him being ordered to maintain combat readiness and his appealing to his superiors for permission to offload all but a skeleton crew becoming public being the cause of his sacking.
It was pretty much a stitchup, the Navy inquiry saying he refused to offload his sailors into communal barrack accommodation holding out for hotel rooms where social distancing could be conducted. And then the inquiry giving two officers commendations for their work procuring hotel rooms which it had just said was an unnecessary expense and the Captain shouldn’t have waited for.