Videos show emotional send-off sailors gave aircraft carrier captain fired after warning of coronavirus outbreak

• Navy sailors gave Capt. Brett Crozier, commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt fired after a letter he wrote about a coronavirus outbreak onboard leaked to the media, an emotional send-off.
• "He stuck his neck out for us, so we had and have to do the same for him," one sailor aboard the aircraft carrier told Insider.
• Several videos posted on social media show sailors cheering and clapping as they chant the captain's name over and over again.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

"Captain Crozier! Captain Crozier!" Sailors on the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt said goodbye to their commanding officer, Capt. Brett Crozier, who was relieved of duty after raising alarms about a coronavirus outbreak on board, with cheers, whistles, and applause, videos first reported by Stars and Stripes show.

Gathered in the hanger deck, the sailors chanted the captain's name.

"That's how you send out one of the greatest captains you ever had," someone can be heard saying in one of the videos. "The GOAT [greatest of all time], the man for the people."

"We as a crew really just stood their at attention waiting for [captain] to depart," a Navy sailor aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt told Insider. "It was a very emotional feeling, and as he was transiting we were saluting him off.

"Once he was on the brow of the ship, we all crowded the brow applauding and chanting his name because he really meant a lot to us."

"We felt this way about our captain before we had this going on," the sailor said. "His passion and energy was felt the day he checked on board. He stuck his neck out for us, so we had and have to do the same for him."

Another video appears to show the captain walking down the gangway onto the pier in Guam, where the ship is stuck in port, before turning and waving goodbye to the crew.

Crozier was fired Thursday by acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly after a letter written by Crozier begging the Navy for help with a worsening coronavirus outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt leaked to the media.

The letter, which was published by the San Francisco Chronicle on Monday, warned that "the spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating."

Crozier strongly urged the Navy to take as much of the crew as possible ashore, writing that, "Sailors do not need to die." The letter made headlines everywhere after it leaked.

The acting Navy secretary said Thursday that he decided to relieve Crozier because he had "lost confidence in his ability to lead that warship as it continues to fight through the virus."

"This decision is not one of retribution," Modly said Thursday. "It is about confidence. It is not an indictment of character, but rather of judgement. While I do take issue with the validity of some of the points in Captain Crozier's letter, he was absolutely correct in raising them."

The acting secretary, without directly accusing Crozier of leaking the letter, said that Crozier allowed the letter to be distributed outside the chain of command, making it susceptible to a leak. Modly said that the letter caused "a little bit of panic" not only on the ship but among families of sailors.

Modly said that the captain "demonstrated extremely poor judgement in the middle of a crisis."

The commanding officer's side of the story remains untold. Insider reached out to Crozier for comment on the Navy's decision but has not receive a response.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt's executive officer, Capt. Dan Keeler, has assumed temporary command of the carrier until Rear Adm. Select Carlos Sardiello, who previously commanded the ship, arrives.

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