Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael M. Gilday and acting Secretary of the Navy James McPherson have recommended that Capt. Brett Crozier be reinstated as commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
However, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who was briefed on the recommendations the morning of April 24, has indicated he wants more time to consider his next steps.
Initial indications were that Esper would accept the Navy’s recommendations, so it came as a surprise when he asked for more time.
Crozier was removed from command by then acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly following the leak to the media of a letter the captain wrote to commanders asking for help to contain COVID-19 onboard the ship. The USS Roosevelt has a crew of just under 5,000.
In his memo, Crozier wrote to Navy leadership alerting them to the challenges of trying to contain the disease aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt and to urgently request sailors be allowed to quarantine off the ship.
“We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset: our Sailors,” Crozier wrote in the memo.
After the crisis broke, the ship docked in Guam. At that time, about 114 sailors had tested positive for COVID-19. To date, that number stands at 840, or 17 percent of the crew. On April 23, the Navy announced it had completed testing on all 4,938 crew members. According to Navy reports, 88 sailors have recovered, and 4,234 have moved ashore. Four sailors are currently in hospital with the disease.
On April 13, Aviation Ordnanceman Chief Petty Officer Charles Robert Thacker Jr., 41, died from the disease at the U.S. Naval Hospital Guam. Thacker had tested positive for COVID-19 on March 30, was removed from the ship and placed in isolation. On April 9, Thacker was found unresponsive during a daily medical check and transferred to Naval Base Guam via ambulance where he was placed in the Intensive Care Unit.
When Crozier’s letter first became public, Gilday and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley both advised Modly not to remove him from command until a full investigation had been completed. It has been reported that Modly, concerned that President Trump wanted the captain dismissed, ignored that advice.
Then video leaked of Crozier being applauded and cheered by the Roosevelt’s crew as he was leaving the ship. Modly decided to visit the Roosevelt and address the crew.
In his address, Modly blasted the ousted captain of the ship for ‘leaking’ the memo, while defending his own decision to fire him.
Modly told the crew, “If he didn’t think, in my opinion, that this information wasn’t going to get out to the public, in this day and information age that we live in, then he was either A, too naïve or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this,” Modly said. “The alternative is that he did this on purpose.”
Modly went on to say it was a “betrayal of trust, with me, with his chain of command.”
Ironically, audio and text of Modly’s remarks were leaked to the press.
Esper had publicly expressed his support for Modly’s decision to fire Crozier, but after Modly’s speech aboard the ship, Esper grew unsettled. Just hours after Modly issued a statement April 6 defending his words, Esper compelled Modly to reverse course and issue a public apology.
Following a meeting between the two, Modly tendered his resignation on April 7.
Crozier is currently in isolation on Guam after contracting the COVID-19 virus.
DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP
Get Breaking Aerospace News Sent To Your Inbox! We Never Spam
By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact