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 1. The War Zone




NAVY COULD STILL PUNISH CAPTAIN BEHIND LETTER BEGGING TO GET SAILORS OFF
COVID-19 PLAGUED CARRIER

The Navy says whoever leaked the letter, even if it was the author himself,
could face disciplinary action for violating good order and discipline.

byJoseph Trevithick| UPDATED Apr 2, 2020 8:18 AM EDT
The War Zone

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The Acting Secretary of the U.S. Navy has said the service could punish whoever
leaked a damning letter from the commanding officer of the Nimitz class aircraft
carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt regarding the response to a major outbreak of the
COVID-19 novel coronavirus on his ship. This would include the author of that
letter, Captain Brett Crozier, if it turns out he was involved in distributing
his missive to the press. 



Crozier's letter, which is dated Mar. 30, 2020, first emerged publicly yesterday
after the San Franciso Chronicle obtained a copy. It decried the Navy's approach
to handling the growing number of COVID-19 cases on board the Theodore Roosevelt
and proposed moving 90 percent of the more than 4,000 crew members ashore to
stem the virus' spread. 




The carrier is presently docked in Guam, where it arrived on Mar. 26 after a
number of sailors tested positive for the novel coronavirus. As of Apr. 1, 2020,
the Navy said that 93 of the Theodore Roosevelt sailors have contracted the
virus, 86 of which are exhibiting symptoms. The service also said that it had
tested 24 percent of the ship's crew, with 593 negative results. 




This conflicts with San Franciso Chronicle's story, which said there were
reportedly between 150 and 200 confirmed cases. It's also important to note that
there is significant evidence that individuals who have contracted COVID-19 can
transmit it to others even while asymptomatic. Crozier, in his letter, had
pointed out that seven of the first 33 sailors on the ship confirmed to have
contracted the virus had initially tested negative.



The USS Theodore Roosevelt during a previous port visit to Guam., USN


"Let me emphasize that this is exactly what we want our commanding officers and
our medical teams to do," Acting Secretary of the U.S. Navy Thomas Modly, told
reporters on Apr. 1, referring to Crozier's decision to write his letter. "The
fact that he [Crozier] wrote the letter up to his chain of command to express
his concerns would absolutely not result in any type of retaliation."



"We are not looking to shoot the messenger here, we want to get this right,"
U.S. Navy Admiral Mike Gilday, the Chief of Naval Operations, said at the same
press conference. He added that he felt there had been possible "breakdown in
communications" between Crozier and his superiors.



However, it seems clear that the Navy's top leadership, as well as other senior
U.S. military officials, is extremely embarrassed by the letter and is equally
unhappy that it has become public. “I don’t know who leaked the letter to the
media," Modly said. "That would be something that would violate the principles
of good order and discipline, if he [Crozier] were responsible for that. But I
don’t know that."



The general consensus is that Crozier felt he had to write the letter at all in
order best safeguard his crew, even at the cost of his career in the Navy. It's
also impossible to know how the service might have responded if it did not
become public. There is certainly some evidence that senior Navy and other top
U.S. military officials had not been taking the situation as seriously as they
should have. U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper baffling told CBS' "Evening
News" late yesterday that he had not yet even read Crozier's letter, despite it
being a major national news story all day.





"We are not at war, and therefore cannot allow a single Sailor to perish as a
result of this pandemic unnecessarily," Crozier had written. "Decisive action is
required now in order to ... prevent tragic outcomes."



The Navy now says it has removed 1,000 sailors from the carrier and is trying to
make arrangements to pull another 2,700 members of the crew off the ship and
move them into quarantined accommodations, including hotels, ashore. There are
more than 4,000 personnel assigned to the ship at present, meaning this plan
could still leave more sailors onboard than the 10 percent Crozier had advocated
for in his letter.



"Taking all of the crew off of the ship does not make them safer," Acting
Secretary of the U.S. Navy Thomas Modly told reporters on Apr. 1, saying that
there was a certain number of sailors necessary to maintain critical systems,
including the carrier's two nuclear reactors, provide security, and perform
other essential functions. Crozier's letter does not dispute this, but makes
clear that the captain felt that just 10 percent of his crew could manage these
tasks. 



Modly and Gilday have both repeatedly insisted that the carrier is ready to
deploy in response to a crisis, if necessary. Crozier's letter does not
specifically argue that the ship is not capable of conducting operations in its
present state, but it does say that a strategy to "maximize warfighting
readiness and capacity as quickly as possible" means, unquestionably, "we go to
war with the force we have and fight sick. We never achieve a COVID-free TR
[Theodore Roosevelt]. There will be losses to the virus."



Crozier's letter presented a clear and stark contrast between the strategy he
said the Navy was pursuing (a) and the one he was advocating for instead (b).,
via San Francisco Chronicle.

Crozier also made clear that he felt that his crew was being exposed to
unnecessary risks in a peacetime environment. "Keeping over 4,000 young men and
women on board the TR is an unnecessary risk and breaks faith with those Sailors
entrusted to our care," he wrote.



"It's disappointing to have him say that," Modly said about those particular
comments. "I know that's not the truth."



Whatever the case, Crozier has succeeded in getting a pledge from the Navy to
move the bulk of his crew ashore and into quarantine off the ship. What may
happen to the captain himself, now and in the future, in terms of both
disciplinary action and career prospects, very much remains to be seen. 



Contact the author: joe@thedrive.com






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