U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Kaylianna Genier
The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) transits the Pacific Ocean Jan. 25, 2020. The Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group is on a scheduled deployment to the Indo-Pacific.
- The US Navy has fired the commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, Navy leaders announced Thursday afternoon.
- Capt. Brett Crozier, the carrier's CO, wrote a letter pleading with the Navy to take action to evacuate the ship amid a serious coronavirus outbreak, and that letter leaked to the media.
- Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly personally relieved Crozier, announcing that he made the decision after a loss of confidence in the carrier skipper.
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The US Navy has fired the commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier stuck in port and dealing with a severe coronavirus outbreak, Navy leaders said Thursday afternoon.
Capt. Brett Crozier wrote a letter to Navy leadership begging the Navy to take decisive action to counter the spread of the virus on the carrier by getting sailors off the ship as soon as possible. The letter leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle, which published the commanding officer's letter Tuesday.
"The spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating," the commanding officer wrote in the letter. "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."
As of Wednesday, 93 sailors aboard the TR had tested positive for the coronavirus.
After the letter leaked to the press, the Navy revealed that it was taking steps to evacuate the ship. Around 1,000 sailors have already gone ashore. That number is expected to increase to 2,700 within the next few days.
"I cannot imagine how wrenching the feeling of signing that letter must have been for the captain," James Stavridis, a retired Navy admiral wrote in an op-ed Wednesday. "But he made the right choice, and the Navy will back him up."
Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly expressed disappointment on Wednesday with some of the things the captain wrote but stressed that the fact that Crozier "wrote the letter up to his chain of command to express his concerns would absolutely not result in any type of retaliation."
He did, however, note that leaking a letter to the media "would be something that would violate good order and discipline."
US officials told Reuters, which first reported that the Navy was expected to fire Crozier, that the captain was being relieved not because he wrote the letter but because the Navy believes he is the one who leaked the letter to the media.
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