Is Fired Captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt A Hero for Standing Up for his Crew?
The former Captain in charge of the Theodore Roosevelt who was relieved has become something of a folk hero on social media:
A cheering and applauding crowd of sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt wished farewell to their captain, whom the Navy relieved of command after he raised concerns about the spreading coronavirus on his ship in a letter that was leaked to the media.
Hundreds were pictured in the gathering in the ship’s hangar deck and many chanted Capt. Brett Crozier’s name in multiple videos posted to social media.
A video posted Friday to the Facebook page of Michael Washington included the hashtags #MYCO and #WEARETRSTRONG.
“That’s how you send out one of the greatest captains you ever had,” someone says in the video, then using an acronym for greatest of all time, adds: “The GOAT, the man for the people.”
Crozier was dismissed Thursday due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command and for not using his chain of command to make service leaders aware of his concerns about the virus outbreak that had infected more than 100 sailors on the ship, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said at the Pentagon.
Stars & Stripes
When I first heard about this story I thought initially he got screwed, but unlike social media I actually will go and read more source documents about what happened.
The memo that was leaked is posted on the San Francisco Chronicle website and the first thing I thought while reading the letter is why wasn’t this sent over a SIPR computer which classified information should be sent? The letter was filled with information about the operational readiness of the ship. Sending the message over a classified network would have avoided this whole mess.
Secondly, here is the part of the San Francisco Chronicle article that was buried that no one is talking about; why was the crew allowed to go on shore leave in Vietnam?:
Gilday told reporters last week it was unclear if sailors became infected following the ship’s previous port of call in early March to Da Nang, Vietnam. Gilday said they debated whether to go on with the Vietnam visit, but at the time there were only 16 coronavirus cases in northern Vietnam and the port was in the central part of the country.
Sailors were screened prior to returning on board. The first three sailors tested positive 15 days after leaving Vietnam, officials said.
San Francisco Chronicle
I read that 16 infected number and instantly did not believe it because it is coming from a regime, just like the Chinese, that can easily suppress information. Vietnam likely has a far larger coronavirus problem that they don’t want the outside world to know about. It seems to me this was a very bad decision to have a port call in a country right next door to the coronavirus epicenter.
Lastly for people that have been to Naval Base Guam, this is not a huge base with a lot of open accommodations for 5,000 people on an aircraft carrier that just showed up. The only place to house that many people in rooms that can be quarantined would be in resort hotels in Tumon. Think of Tumon as the mini-Waikiki of Guam, outside of the military Tumon is the economic engine of Guam with its tourist industry.
How many resort hotels you think were eager to fill their business with sailors possibly infected with coronavirus? Plus how many residents of Guam wanted these sailors in the community when they see photos like this of sailors congregating on the beach in defiance of orders put out by the local government to practice social distancing:
Getting this many sailors into resort hotels was going to take Navy leaders time to make happen with the local government and hotel owners:
Moving sailors out of Naval Base Guam into hotels was criticized by Sen. Sabina Perez and community groups.
Eight community groups said in a statement: “The decision to house them in the middle of our community is playing a game of chance with the health of our people.”
Pacific Daily News
This was not going to be something easily done especially when you take in consideration the sensitivities the people of Guam have of past colonization. The Navy was going to have to work carefully with Guam’s political leadership to make this happen and all indications are they did:
When the vessel docked, there were no beds and now, a week later, there are almost 3,000 beds for the crew, Modly told reporters at a press briefing. Creating available space for the sailors happened in a week, he said.
“That’s not because of this letter,” Modly said, referring to Crozier’s letter. “That’s because of stuff going on well before the letter was sent.”
Modly added the letter was sent via email and copied to 20 or 30 other people. The letter created the perception the Navy wasn’t on the job and created a degree of panic, he said.
It seems like people on social media are looking for a COVID-19 hero of some kind, but Captain Crozier in my opinion is not it. If people want some COVID-19 heroes here are the people that get my vote.
A commander who reaches flag rank and can’t restrain himself from showboating is definitely a liability… especially when he/she controls a CVN…
I have to admit I thought he was getting a raw deal, then I heard that 20 or 30 folks were on the email? Even as a private I didn’t have 20 or 30 people on both enlisted and officer side of my CoC…but then I was in when email & the internet didn’t exist..well ARPANET but that was way above my pay grade.
I am guessing that he probably cc’ed a number of people on his staff to show he was “doing something” with this memo and one of them leaked it to the San Francisco Chronicle thinking it would get the Navy to move quicker not realizing it would take out their Captain.
I really don’t know what people expected the Navy to do, forcibly take over a Tumon resort and kick everyone out? The fact they started getting sailors into a resort hotel in seven days after arriving is about as fast as I would expect something like this to take on Guam.
I thought he was a victim at first as well.
The real problem is that he didn’t isolate his carrier as soon as the Chinese Coronavirus was obviously spreading.
Letting your sailors have sloppy seconds with untested whores servicing Chinese tourists is a clear case of not thinking things through.
Further, his crew is a young and healthy population which even the most alarmist media doesn’t claim is at high risk.
There is certainly a policy for managing flu on ships.
His letter reeked of panic rather than management.
@Chickenhead, another possibility would be a Chinese agent somehow intentionally spreading the virus to someone in the crew during that Vietnam shore visit just to see what the effect would be. 😈
Once this is over, or further along, clever people with all the correct data will be able to find a lot of conclusions.
Superspreader events will be identified and the possibility of intentional spreading by the Chinese will be considered.
It doesn’t seem the case now based on available information.
But who can trust the media?
If China didn’t try to infect America’s military and industrial/tech centers, they dropped the ball.
SecNav relieved a Navy captain for unprofessional communication. Then SecNav delivers a speech to that ship’s crew that was unprofessional.
JoeC,
You’re right, of course, and he paid for it. But the Admiral that literally said “we’re not in a war” was “either naive or stupid” and needed to move on to a land-based role…
A joint statement from four Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee, including the committee chair, Representative Adam Smith (D-WA), criticized Crozier’s conduct, saying that “Captain Crozier was justifiably concerned about the health and safety of his crew, but he did not handle the immense pressure appropriately.” Although they thought firing him was too much, he was in a role where you only get one strike.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/navy-thomas-modly-resignation-uss-theodore-roosevelt-crozier
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brett_Crozier
Moodly said, “When I walked on the quarterdeck of the TR I lost situational awareness and decided to speak with them as if I was their commander, or their shipmate, rather than their Secretary,”
We’ve seen, any number of times, where Navy commanders were relieved of command that the primary offense was for publicly bullying and belittling subordinates. So, Moodly’s comments to that crew were unbecoming of a commander too.
Modly. And the differences are 1. he fired himself after behaving in an inappropriate manner, and 2. the Captain, unlike the civilian, released potentially classified readiness information…
And now the Navy recommends reinstating reinstating CPT Crozier: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/24/politics/navy-recommend-reinstating-roosevelt-commander/index.html
“While Modly publicly accused Crozier of sending his letter of warning to 20 to 30 people, the email to which the letter was attached shows that Crozier sent it to 10 people including his direct superior, according to a copy of the email obtained by The Washington Post.
“I believe if there is ever a time to ask for help it is now regardless of the impact on my career,” Crozier wrote in his email, the contents of which a US official directly familiar with the message confirmed to CNN.
The email was addressed to Rear Adm. Stuart Baker, the commander of the carrier strike group of which the USS Theodore Roosevelt is a component and Crozier’s immediate commanding officer.
The email was also addressed to Adm. John Aquilino, the commander of US Pacific Fleet; and Vice Adm. DeWolfe Miller, another senior officer in the Pacific responsible for overseeing Naval Air Forces.
The message was also copied to seven Navy captains, all of whom were either serving aboard the aircraft carrier or working as aides to the admirals addressed in the email.”
^^Sorry, for the stuttering, lol. IMO, someone should still lose their security clearance for leaking the email to the press.
A. Where were the crew infected?
B. Who explicitly authorized the ship to go there?
C. That’s who should be fired.
@Andy, even with the more limited distribution list the email still had information in it that should not have been sent over a NIPR network. With that said that is why I believed an investigation should have been completed before removing him. First and foremost is I would like to know who authorized the shore visit in Vietnam? Was it Crozier or was he ordered to do so by someone else in the PACFLT leadership?
According to the linked article:
The Roosevelt’s stop in Vietnam in early March marked the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the country and the United States. It was also meant to serve as a symbolic show of U.S. strength and influence in the region, in the face of a rising China. Planning had been in the works for months.
Which is what I suspected. I also suspected he didn’t send it out to 20-30 people.
Wonder which one of those 10 people sent the e mail to the press.
(GI, I sent you an e mail…why am I in the mod queue now?)
Liz, I have no idea why your IP address keeps going into moderation. Something with WordPress must not like your IP address which keeps causing me to have to pull your comments out of moderation.
Hm. Our internet is pretty sketchy out here (mountains of Colorado) maybe that’s why. Boo.
Thanks for the response, GI. And thanks for pulling my comments out of the mod queue. 🙂
Hey it worked that time. Woop woop!
Just to add:
The Navy recommended to Defense Secretary Mark Esper that Capt. Brett Crozier be restored to command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier on Friday, according to an administration official.
After all that has happened, he would be insane to take them up on that. But the offer would be nice (exonerating at least).