US Navy Leadership Recommends Reinstatement of Capt Crozier

Date:

Washington: The findings of the investigation into the dismissal of former skipper of US Navy aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt has led the Navy leadership recommending on April 24 that Capt. Brett Crozier be reinstated to his prior command.

The carrier’s skipper had been dismissed about three weeks ago.

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Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday and recently-appointed acting Navy Secretary James McPherson — who replaced former acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly after his tumultuous resignation — suggested Crozier be reinstated, according to a media report.

Gilday and McPherson discussed their findings with Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, and met on April 24 with Secretary of Defence Mark T Esper.

“Although many in the media are focused on one aspect of the initial inquiry, it is, in fact, about far more than one person. The secretary wants to ensure that the report is thorough and can stand up under the rightful scrutiny of Congress, the media, the families and crew of the Theodore Roosevelt, and the American people. To ensure that, he wants to actually read the report,” sources told media.

The reinstatement of Crozier as commanding officer of Theodore Roosevelt would mark yet another bewildering twist in the carrier’s month-long debacle.

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On March 24, the first three cases of COVID-19 onboard the carrier were announced by the Pentagon. Within 24 hours, the number of infected more than doubled, prompting Navy leadership in Washington to order Crozier to sideline the 4,800-person ship in Guam.

Each subsequent day yielded more confirmed cases. As of April 24, 840 sailors assigned to the aircraft carrier tested positive for COVID-19, a number that includes Crozier, who is in isolation and reportedly improving, reports said.

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Crozier reportedly contacted an unnamed admiral in Washington seeking assistance prior to sending the email containing the letter that would subsequently be leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle. The following day, March 29, the captain emphasised the urgency of the rapidly evolving situation in a conversation with Modly’s chief of staff, Robert Love.

Unwilling to stall any longer, Crozier fired off his email just as Modly and Navy leadership were debating which course of action would expedite the safe removal of the carrier’s crew.

“We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die,” Capt. Brett Crozier wrote in the letter. “If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our Sailors.”

Modly said the decision to fire Crozier was made due to the wide distribution of the communication over a “non-secure, unclassified” email that included “20 or 30” additional recipients.

“It was a betrayal,” Modly told Roosevelt sailors over the ship’s 1MC intercom during a visit to Guam days later. “If he didn’t think, in my opinion, that this information wasn’t going to get out to the public, in this day and information age that we live in, then he was either too naïve or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this. The alternative is that he did this on purpose.”

The email, which was copied to seven other Navy captains, was primarily addressed to Crozier’s commanding officer, Rear Adm. Stuart Baker, US Pacific Fleet commander Adm. John Aquilino, and Naval Air Forces commander Vice Adm. DeWolfe Miller.

“I’ve got to keep an open mind with regard to everything,” Esper told NBC’s Today. “We’ve got to take this one step at a time, let the investigation within the Navy conclude … and we’ll take things as they can, and we’ll make very reasoned opinions and judgments as this progresses.”

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