The US Navy Captain fired for his widely publicised plea for help for his coronavirus-affected crew has himself tested positive for the disease.
Captain Brett Crozier’s COVID-19 test result was reported Sunday by the New York Times, just hours after US Defense Secretary Mark Esper defended the captain’s firing.
The firing was widely condemned as an unfair punishment of a respected officer who was looking out for the welfare of his crew when he implored his superiors to let him quickly vacate the ship after it docked in Guam.
“We are not at war,” Crozier wrote. “Sailors do not need to die.”
Crozier was captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt when it was reported that three members of the crew had tested positive for COVID-19. The next day the number of affected sailors was increased to eight, and within a few days it was “dozens.”
The sailors reportedly became ill at sea, two weeks after a port call at Danang, Vietnam. The Roosevelt was ordered to Guam where she docked at the end of March and all 5,000 aboard were ordered to be tested for the virus.
Approximately 100 affected sailors were off-boarded, but the rest of the crew remained on board. On the 30th of March, Crozier emailed a 4-page internal letter to multiple people in the Navy leadership, pleading to have the majority of the crew evacuated and quarantined on shore, saying it was impossible to follow social distancing and quarantine procedures on board a crowded ship.
The letter was leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle, which published it. On the 1st of April the U.S. Navy ordered the aircraft carrier evacuated, with a skeleton crew of 400 to remain aboard the vessel to maintain the nuclear reactor, the fire-fighting equipment, and the ship’s galley.
The next day, Crozier was relieved of command by acting US Navy Secretary Thomas Modly. At the time of his removal, some 114 crew members had been reported to be positive for the coronavirus. As he disembarked, sailors were seen chanting “Cap-tain Cro-zier” in a video posted to Twitter captioned “Wrongfully relieved of command but did right by the sailors”.
Acting Secretary Modley is unfit to hold his office. Should resign or be fired. This is very bad PR for the USN/DoD. The ship’s company, most of the Navy, other services and at least half the nation are or will be on Crozier’s side. He was looking after his men and women. No more, no less
He’s resigned today. I have to say that I do NOT disagree with the action, but will state unequivocally it was handled incorrectly. As the CO of one of the USN’s major capital units he should not have sent that (highly emotionally charged) letter to anybody but his boss and it should have been in a different tone. If he was going plead his case it should have been done privately over secure voicecoms.
It was inevitable that it would leak being sent and then copied to Lord knows how many individuals and make it look as though he was panicking. He already screwed up IMO opinion by allowing port call in Vietnam where the first infection may have occurred. I’m sympathetic to his situation but he lost his cool there.
If this occurred during peacetime albeit a very difficult situation what would his reaction be in shooting engagement trying to save his ship after being hit by multiple shipkillers? Would he be able to sacrifice trapped crewmembers to save his ship or opt to lose a priceless combat asset to save lives.
Command. It’s the toughest job in the world.
Along that line:
https://warontherocks.com/2020/04/clarifying-command-keeping-up-with-the-john-paul-joneses
Cheers
Hi Helions. I never enjoyed command when I was in the navy, but although different, I did in civie street. I agree with you that his actions could be described as somewhat hysterical but not having been there, I don’t know the exact circumstances and therefore cannot judge. We don’t know what his heads of department were reporting back and perhaps more importantly, what his senior NCOs were telling him. We also don’t know what support he felt he was getting, or not, from his chain of command, although some reports suggest it was precious little. Certainly when he left his ship the crew made their feelings felt about who’s side they were on! No, perhaps he shouldn’t have written that letter, but he must have felt he had no other course of action open to him. He might have been at the end of his tether by then. You know captains don’t just get to be captains. They go through an extremely rigorous selection and staff training process and only the best make it. He knew what the likely outcome of writing that letter would be. In my view, if he showed ill judgement, so did the navy leadership and the Acting Secretary, in the way they handled this, in spades. One must also wonder at the degree of politicisation involved in the decision. I may be wrong Helions, but over the last couple of years I’ve detected a lot of nervousness and tension in the USN. Maybe people are being pushed too hard and perhaps feel there’s a lack of support from a leadership too busy looking over their shoulders at politicians? Maybe it’s been ever thus? I don’t know. Anyway, good to chat with you. Cheers!
Sceptical Peter.. ,Hi we are a bunch 350+ of mainly UK contractors left behind after the cancellation of Defender 2020 . We are nearly confined to barracks by US Military and our respective companies to continue for the companies profit .When it gets here, not if . we feel we’ll be left to our own devices as our American Management team are self -isolating already .. grim