Navy decides not to restore Capt. Brett Crozier’s command aboard carrier; he’s also ineligible for any future top posts.
U.S. naval officials said Friday that they would not reinstate Capt. Brett Crozier to his post commanding the Theodore Roosevelt, following an investigation into what led the Santa Rosa native to write a controversial memo raising alarms about a coronavirus outbreak on the aircraft carrier.
Crozier, 50, who has recovered from COVID19 himself at his San Diego home, will not return to helm the nuclearpowered warship now that the Navy has upheld its decision to relieve him from duty nearly three months ago. Naval officials said only that Crozier would be “reassigned” and be ineligible for future command posts.
Crozier sparked controversy among the Navy’s brass after writing a memo warning that sailors would die if more was not done to evacuate the ship after it docked in Guam on March 27 amid a coronavirus outbreak. Navy officials insisted Friday that Crozier was not being disciplined for sending an email asking for assistance, but for needlessly breaking the sacrosanct chain of command and for poorly managing the unfolding outbreak on his ship.
More than 1,200 sailors — more than 1 in 5 — would test positive for the virus. Several would be hospitalized and one would die from
COVID19 complications. A number remain in San Diego awaiting negative test results so they can be flown to the ship to rejoin the rest of their crew.
In April, Navy officials initially recommended Crozier be given his job back, but Acting Secretary of the Navy James McPherson called for further investigation of the events after reviewing the preliminary inquiry about the outbreak and Crozier’s actions to try to contain it. He directed Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday to conduct a followup command investigation.
With that investigation now completed, Gilday told news media Friday, the Navy had determined Crozier skipped critical links in the chain of command and did not take swift enough action to protect the health of the crew.
That, Gilday said, included a decision by Crozier at one point to lift quarantine precautions in one portion of the ship, allowing infected sailors to mingle with uninfected ones. The captain should have instead tried to move sailors to available hotel rooms on shore — the decision prioritized “comfort over safety,” Gilday said.
“I was not impressed by the slow egress off the ship, the lack of a plan to do so,” Gilday said.
Gilday, addressing the crew of the Roosevelt directly, said, “While you rightly supported Capt. Crozier as your commanding officer, it is because of what he didn’t do that I’ve chosen not to reinstate him as your (commanding officer).”
With the benefit of hindsight provided by the Navy’s deeper investigation into Crozier’s handling of the outbreak, Gilday said he would not have recommended Crozier’s reinstatement in the first place.
On March 27, the Roosevelt docked in Guam after the virus had begun racing through the ship. Days later, Crozier wrote a letter and emailed it to other Navy officials asking for immediate help to evacuate his ship before sailors lost their lives to the spreading virus.
Gilday also said Crozier failed to recognize that offshore hotel beds were being readied for Roosevelt sailors when the captain sent the email pleading for assistance.
In a statement to Navy investigators, Crozier said he was confronting “a constant balancing act between keeping the crew in close quarters on the ship and sending the crew out to inadequate facilities where they lacked proper living necessities and medical care.”
Crozier was removed 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 was praised by many both in and outside the Navy for jeopardizing his career on behalf of his sailors’ wellbeing.
“This is a sad day for the Navy, but I’m proud of Brett and how he handled himself,” said Brett Odom, who roomed with Crozier in flight school in Florida and just six months ago watched him take command of the Roosevelt at a ceremony in San Diego.
“Throughout this entire situation he has been the only individual who has remained calm, clear, and consistent, and his recommendations have been validated in fact by the subsequent actions of the Navy,” Odom said in an email.
“Honestly, at this point with everything going on in the states, it’s no surprise. There are injustices going on in every direction you look,” said Elizabeth Paz, mother of a Roosevelt sailor.
“I feel bad for (Crozier) because he had such a great career and did nothing wrong. It’s sad when you get punished for doing the right thing.”