Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly has fired the captain who raised the alarm about a spike in coronavirus cases onboard his aircraft carrier, which was sidelined in Guam last week
, the Navy announced on Thursday.
Capt. Brett Crozier wrote a letter Navy leaders Monday pleading for additional help to combat the outbreak, which has sickened roughly 100 sailors on the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. The letter was leaked to the media.In the letter, Crozier urged "decisive action" to remove the "majority of personnel" from the carrier.
“We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die," Crozier wrote. "If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our sailors.” Modly faulted Crozier for "not working with the chain of command" when writing the letter and by not raising the issue with Modly directly. He also said the Navy was already addressing Crozier's concerns by the time the letter was written. "He sent it out pretty broadly," Modly said, but stopped short of accusing Crozier of leaking the letter.
“I could reach no other conclusion that Capt. Crozier had allowed the complexity of his challenge with the Covid breakout on the ship to overwhelm his ability to act professionally when acting professionally was what was needed at the most at the time," Modly said.
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