SAN DIEGO — The captain of a San Diego-based aircraft carrier battling an outbreak of COVID-19 on his ship was fired as commanding officer Thursday, days after his letter decrying conditions on his ship became public.
Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly announced the firing during a Pentagon news conference.
“At my direction, the commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, Capt. Brett Crozier, was relieved of command by a carrier strike group commander, Rear Adm. Stuart Baker,” Modly said.
Capt. Brett Crozier wrote a letter late Sunday asking the Navy to remove 90% of the crew of the Theodore Roosevelt to halt the “ongoing and accelerating” spread of COVID-19 on board. About 114 sailors on the Roosevelt have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Crozier’s letter was published Tuesday by The San Francisco Chronicle and generated headlines nationwide.
On Wednesday, the Navy announced it was moving almost 3,000 sailors off the ship and working to find space on Guam for more.
Modly said he wasn’t sure whether Crozier leaked the letter personally, but he said Crozier didn’t do enough to ensure the letter didn’t get out, saying it was copied to many people outside the captain’s chain of command.
“It’s created a firestorm,” Modly said. “It’s created doubts about the ship’s ability to go to sea if it needs to.”
Modly said the letter also created panic on the ship.
“It misrepresented the facts of what was going on on the ship as well,” he said. “At the same time, the families here in the United States were panicked … . You raise a particular level of alarm when you say that 50 people on the crew are gonna die. No one knows that to be true.”
The Roosevelt pulled into Guam late last week after several sailors on board tested positive for COVID-19. That was two weeks after the ship visited Da Nang, Vietnam, a country with known coronavirus cases.
The Navy recently stopped disclosing the numbers of COVID-19 cases on its ships, but Modly said Thursday Modly called Crozier an honorable man.
“The responsibility for this decision rests with me,” Modly said. “Capt. Crozier is an honorable man who, despite this uncharacteristic lapse of judgment, has dedicated himself throughout a lifetime of incredible service to our nation and he should be proud of that.”
The chief of naval operation, Adm. Mike Gilday, said he supports Modly’s decision.
