Captain of virus-stricken ship fired for sending unsecure letter to superiors
WASHINGTON
The Navy fired the commander of a coronavirusstricken aircraft carrier because a letter in which he pleaded for help was sent over an unsecure communications channel and became public, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said Thursday.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt and its 4,800 sailors has been docked in Guam for several days following an outbreak of coronavirus cases among the crew.
The Navy is evacuating up to 2,700 sailors from the ship and putting them in hotels or other accommodations in Guam to stop the spread of the virus.
“I did not come to this decision lightly,” Modly told reporters at the Pentagon.
The release of the letter raised questions about the ship’s ability to operate, which “could have emboldened our adversaries to seek advantage, and it undermined the chain of command,” he said. “For these reasons I lost confidence in his ability to continue to lead that warship as it continues to fight this virus.”
On the ship, 114 sailors have so far tested positive for the coronavirus, which first surfaced among the crew about two weeks after it had made a port visit to Da Nang, Vietnam, in early March.
Modly said it was not that Capt. Brett Crozier alerted the Navy to the cases onboard, “it was the way in which he did it.”
Crozier sending a fourpage letter to the chain of command was appropriate, but he sent it on an unsecure communications channel aboard the ship, and copied “to 20 or 30 other people. That’s just not acceptable,” Modly said.
The San Francisco Chronicle obtained the letter and published Crozier’s warning that if the Navy did not take immediate action and get the sailors off the ship, “there will be losses to the virus.”
Modly said the unauthorized release of the letter created an unnecessary panic among the Roosevelt’s families and the public, and gave the impression the situation was more dire than it was, even as he acknowledged more sailors were likely to become ill.
“I can tell you with great certainty there’s going to be more,” Modly said. “It’ll probably be in the hundreds.”
So far, all the cases have been mild, he said. “Of the 114 sailors, not a single one of them has been hospitalized.”
The letter “raised alarm bells unnecessarily” when the Navy was taking action to get the sailors help, Modly said.
He said he was not suggesting that Crozier leaked the letter to the newspaper, but made the point in the media briefing that it was published in Crozier’s hometown paper.
Modly acknowledged that the decision to fire Crozier would have a deep impact on the crew, but said he had lost confidence in the captain’s ability to lead the warship.
“I am convinced that your commanding officer loves you and that he had you at the center of his heart and mind in every decision that he has made. I also know that you have great affection and love for him as well,” said Modly, speaking directly to the Roosevelt crew and their families.
“But it is my responsibility to ensure that his love and concern for you is matched, if not exceeded, by his sober and professional judgment under pressure,” Modly said.
Several Democratic members of the House Armed Services Committee criticized the firing.
“While Capt. Crozier clearly went outside the chain of command, his dismissal at this critical moment — as the sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt are confronted with the COVID-19 pandemic — is a destabilizing move that likely will put our service members at greater risk,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., and others said in a statement released shortly after the firing.