Navy orders ‘deeper review’ of carrier captain’s case
The fate of Navy Capt. Brett Crozier’s career remains uncertain, as the acting head of the Navy has called for further investigation of the events surrounding the coronavirus outbreak aboard the nuclearpowered aircraft carrier Crozier had commanded.
The decision Wednesday by Acting Secretary of the Navy James McPherson comes despite a recommendation by other top Navy officials last week that Crozier be reinstated to his position on the Theodore Roosevelt.
McPherson said he made the decision after reviewing the preliminary inquiry into the virus outbreak and Crozier’s actions to try to contain it and recommendations from Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday.
“Following our discussion, I have unanswered questions that the preliminary inquiry has identified and that can only be answered by a deeper review,” McPherson said in a statement. “Therefore, I am directing Adm. Gilday to conduct a followon command investigation.”
On March 27, the Roosevelt docked in Guam after the virus had begun racing through the ship. Days later, Crozier, a 50yearold Santa Rosa native, wrote a memo and emailed it to other Navy officials asking for immediate help to evacuate his ship before sailors lost their lives to the spreading virus.
Crozier was dismissed from his command after Navy officials blamed him for allowing the letter to get outside the chain of command and become public when it was obtained and published by The Chronicle. ThenActing Navy Secretary Thomas Modly lost his job over his handling of Crozier’s ouster. Crozier, who himself has tested positive for the coronavirus, has been recuperating in isolation in Guam.
The new investigation will begin as healthy Roosevelt crew members will begin cycling back onto the ship after spending more than two weeks quarantined in Guam hotels. The first 700 healthy sailors were sent back to the Roosevelt on Wednesday to replace the skeleton crew that has been managing and cleaning the vessel, a sailor told The Chronicle. The crew on the ship will move to the island and begin their own 14day quarantines.
The Chronicle agreed to withhold the name of the sailor, who was not authorized to speak to the media, in accordance with its anonymous sources policy.
There are 940 active cases from the ship and 29 recovered sailors, the Navy reported Tuesday. Only one sailor remains hospitalized. One sailor died from COVID19 complications.
More than a third of the Navy’s 299 ships currently are deployed. Of the more than 90 Navy ships at sea today, none have active COVID19 cases. Thirteen ships that previously had one or more active cases of COVID19 while in port have zero cases now, the Navy says.
Also Wednesday, Rep Jackie Speier, DSan Mateo, chair of the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee, was joined by 23 members in sending a letter to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert
Redfield requesting his agency develop COVID19 protocols specific to the military.
“(T)he nature of military operations makes it difficult, sometimes impossible, for servicemembers to adhere to the (CDC’s) standard guidelines for preventing and combating the spread of COVID19,” the letter said. “Just as the CDC has prepared guidance for the general public as well as guidance for health care providers that is tailored to their work requirements, we believe that the U.S military also needs guidelines that are customized to the unique operational requirements of the services.”
Testing throughout the military continues to lag, Speier and others wrote.
“Aboard a deployed U.S. Navy ship, hundreds to thousands of Sailors live and work in the smallest of spaces. Maintaining social distancing is not possible, and space for isolation is extremely limited,” the letter stated.