How a Ship’s Coronavirus Outbreak Became a Moral Crisis for the Military
Click on this link to read the story:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/magazine/modly-crozier-coronavirus.html
1) It started with an outbreak of the Covid-19 virus aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with over 4,000 sailors aboard. The ship had made a port call to Da Nang, Vietnam, in early March. On March 24, three crew members tested positive for the virus.
2) On Sunday, March 29, Captain Brett Crozier, commander of the USS TR, asked for permission to dock in Guam and offload the sick sailors on his crew, testing and quarantining them for the virus.
3) He got nowhere. His superior, Rear Admiral Stuart Baker, in charge of all eight carriers, refused to allow any emergency offloading He felt the sailors should be be quarantined and tough it out with the medical care available aboard the ship.
It's not okay to announce to the world that one of the eight aircraft carriers in the US Navy is disabled in Guam, according to my sister, whose son is in the Navy. Doing so would tell our enemies that we're down one player, and some nation like Iran might use this opportunity to attack us.
4) Then Captain Crozier sent an email to 20 people appealing for help. The emailed letter was leaked by someone to the San Francisco Chronicle, which published it on Tuesday, March 31.
Here's a line from the letter:
“This will require a political solution but it is the right thing to do. We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our Sailors.”
Read the full letter.
5) Then on Thursday, April 2, Acting Secretary of the Navy, Thomas Modly, removed Captain Crozier from command of the USS TR. As the captain walked off his ship, a thousand or more of his crew cheered him.
6) Modly met with a lot of critcism. So did Crozier. Among those defending the fired captain was retired Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who said Modly “has become a vehicle for the president. He basically has completely undermined, throughout the T.R. situation, the uniformed leadership of the Navy and the military leadership in general.”
7) By Sunday, April 5, 150 sailors on the ship had tested positive for Covid-19.
8) Modley flew to Guam on Monday, April 6, and aboard the T.R. delivered a speech that slammed Captain Crozier and the sailors who cheered for him as he left the ship. Modly's speech included calling Crozier either "too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer" if he thought the email would not be leaked.
9) On Monday night, after facing significant criticism from lawmakers, retired military leaders and the rank and file, Modly issued an apology for the comments he made to the crew of the Theodore Roosevelt. “Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naïve nor stupid,” Modly said in a written statement. “Captain Crozier is smart and passionate. I believe, precisely because he is not naïve and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship. I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused.”
Probably the Commander-in-Chief told him to apologize. POTUS 45 is sensitive to public opinion, which showed strong support for Crozier.
10) To be continued. Will any sailors die? Will Crozier survive, who himself has now tested positive? Will Trump become sick, like Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom? Will voters reelect him after the fiasco of this pandemic?
Modly's firing of Captain Crozier followed Trump's praise and support for Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL, after the trial for war crimes in which he was convicted of one minor charge and demoted. Trump reversed the demotion.
Then the Secretary of Defense suddenly fired Richard V. Spencer, Secretary of the Navy, for publicly disagreeing with Trump's intervention in the Gallagher case. Clearly, he was following orders from the Commander-in-Chief.
Suddenly Trump appointed Modly as Acting Secretary of the Navy, and he performed well for Trump this week.
Other resources:
Audio of Modly's speech to crew of USS Theodore Roosevelt (posted on the NY Times website).
Letter of Captain Brett Crozier
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