Stricken ship confronts new problem
Crew cleaning infected carrier lacks protective gear
As the Navy races to contain a coronavirus outbreak on the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, sailors left onboard to maintain and disinfect the ship are doing so with minimal protective equipment, fashioning homemade masks out of
Tshirts at the direction of the Pentagon.
Some are working while they await test results, not knowing if they are spreading or catching the virus.
Multiple family members of sailors aboard the carrier confirmed to The Chronicle that their relatives were making face coverings of what they had on hand, including torn Tshirts. The Pentagon has ordered military members to cover their faces when they can’t maintain safe physical distance, but has not widely distributed masks or
other personal protective equipment.
Roosevelt sailors were given latex gloves to use while cleaning the ship but little else, family members said. Sailors quarantined onshore in Guam also have little or no protective equipment, one Roosevelt crew member said.
Many relatives said sailors deserved better from the government, for their sake and for national security.
“Their jobs can put them in harm’s way at times, but they understand and prepare for those situations. This has been different,” said one family member, who like other relatives spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals against Roosevelt sailors.
When The Chronicle reported that the Roosevelt’s former commanding officer, Capt. Brett Crozier, had pleaded with superiors for help evacuating the vessel in Guam, “I felt relieved that they would get the resources they needed and things seemed to move forward quickly,” the family member said. “But it feels like it has lost momentum . ... I do have faith they will get through this, and I know many are working hard supporting that effort.”
The Chronicle agreed to grant the family members and Roosevelt sailor anonymity in accordance with the paper’s anonymous sourcing policy.
The Navy did not respond to a request for comment. But on Monday, Rear Adm. John Menoni, the senior military official on Guam, said cleaning aboard the ship was being handled appropriately.
“I’m assured they have the supplies on the ship that they need to do that cleaning,” he said at a news conference.
The acting secretary of the Navy, Thomas Modly, resigned Tuesday amid sharp criticism of his handling of the Roosevelt situation. In a statement, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said his top two priorities were ensuring “the health, safety and welfare of the USS Theodore Roosevelt’s crew” and redeploying the ship “as soon as safely possible.”
As of Tuesday, 230 of the nearly 5,000 sailors aboard the Roosevelt had tested positive for the coronavirus, the Navy said. Nearly 2,000 sailors have been moved ashore.
About 4,000 sailors have been tested for the coronavirus, but hundreds of the results are pending. There have been no hospitalizations, the Navy said.
The ship’s outbreak became public knowledge after Crozier sent a letter to his chain of command, expressing alarm about the spread of the disease and requesting evacuations from the closequarters vessel. The Chronicle obtained and published the letter, prompting the acting Navy secretary to remove Crozier, a Santa Rosa native, from command. After relieving Crozier of duty, Modly delivered a speech in Guam to the crew disparaging Crozier, for which he later apologized.
The outbreak and its handling has alarmed experts and many lawmakers in Washington, who note that carriers where sailors sleep dozens to a berth and spend their days in confined spaces are susceptible to disease spread.
One sailor told The Chronicle that conditions weren’t any better among sailors in a gymnasium serving as one of the initial group quarantine areas. None of the sailors have masks, the crew member said, and at night the sound of coughing is “like a cacophony of COVID.”
Mark Blakewood’s son serves on the ship. He said his son was tested Saturday after losing his sense of smell and taste, often an early sign of the coronavirus. But he remained on the warship cleaning as he awaited his results, with little protection, said Blakewood, who lives in Orange Park, Fla.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for disinfecting spaces where people are housed advise closing off areas that have been visited by those who have the virus, opening doors and windows and increasing air circulation. All those measures are difficult to implement on an aircraft carrier.
For cleaning such spots, the CDC recommends that people use gloves and gowns and discard them after one use.
Last week, the CDC also recommended that people use cloth masks to cover their faces when they can’t maintain a distance of at least 6 feet from other people, guidelines that the Defense Department mandated Sunday for all military members. But Esper said the military would not distribute protective gear.
“As an interim measure, all individuals are encouraged to fashion face coverings from household items or common materials, such as clean Tshirts or other clean cloths that can cover the nose and mouth area,” Esper said in a memo to military departments. “Medical personal protective equipment such as N95 respirators or surgical masks will not be issued for this purpose as these will be reserved for the appropriate personnel.”
In prePentagon directive photos, videos and social media posts reviewed by The Chronicle, no sailors aboard the Roosevelt appeared to be wearing masks or any type of face coverings. That included Crozier, who had reportedly begun to show coronavirusrelated symptoms shortly before he was removed from the ship. He later tested positive for the virus.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee demanded Tuesday that the Pentagon provide an accounting of its personal protective equipment and medical supplies.
“Without essential medical supplies and personal protective equipment, the coronavirus crisis could expand rapidly from a medical risk for (Defense Department) personnel to an operational and strategic threat to our national security interests,” wrote Massachusetts Rep. Stephen Lynch.
San Mateo Rep. Jackie Speier, who chairs the military personnel subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, told The Chronicle that she was “extremely disappointed” with the Navy’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’ve been told that they have adequate PPE (personal protective equipment), but if they have adequate PPE, why wasn’t there a sufficient amount flown out to the Teddy Roosevelt?” she said.
Speier said she spoke last week with Modly, the former acting Navy secretary, who told her Crozier had been “spooked by the doctors.”
“Well, that’s precisely what he had a responsibility to do, is get spooked by the doctors, and that comment gave me the impression that the secretary was not taking this seriously enough,” Speier said.
Shortly after Crozier’s letter to his superiors went public, the Navy reached an agreement with Guam to provide the civilian government there with protective equipment such as masks and gloves, in exchange for allowing the Roosevelt crew to quarantine in the U.S. territory’s hotels.
Retired Adm. James Stavridis, former NATO supreme allied commander Europe, told The Chronicle that “warships are a perfect breeding ground for coronavirus.”
Scrubbing the Theodore Roosevelt of the virus will not be complicated, but it will be “timeconsuming,” Stavridis said. He estimated cleaning would take five to 10 days with a crew of 350 people.