Washington: The saga of the ouster of Captain Brett Crozier of the American Navy Aircraft Carrier Theodore Roosevelt does not appear to have ended as Acting Secretary of the Navy James McPherson said the Navy will conduct another investigation into Crozier’s ouster and the spread of COVID-19 aboard the carrier.
This move comes after Navy leadership reportedly backed reinstating Crozier to his command following the results of an initial review.
“After carefully reviewing the preliminary inquiry into the events surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Mike Gilday, provided me with his recommendations,” McPherson said in a statement on April 29 morning.
“Following our discussion, I have unanswered questions that the preliminary inquiry has identified and that can only be answered by a deeper review.
“Therefore, I am directing Adm. Gilday to conduct a follow-on command investigation,” McPherson said. “This investigation will build on the good work of the initial inquiry to provide a more fulsome understanding of the sequence of events, actions, and decisions of the chain of command surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt.”
Meanwhile, McPherson and Gilday had already advised Esper on Friday to reinstate Crozier. But McPherson decided to pursue another investigation after receiving Milley’s input, a defence official said.
Days after the Roosevelt reported sailors were testing positive for COVID-19, Crozier pressed the Navy in March to stop the spread of the virus among the crew by offloading most of them on shore in Guam where the ship had pulled into port.
He said those on shore should receive individualised isolation, and the fraction of the crew that remained on the Roosevelt could operate the reactor plant and sanitise the ship, among other things.
Crozier’s letter ultimately appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, and he was relieved of duty on April 2 after then-Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly claimed the letter made its way up Crozier’s immediate chain of command over a non-secure email, and was copied to 20 to 30 additional recipients.
However, it was subsequently reported that the email was sent to a much smaller pool of recipients than Modly suggested.
Modly himself stepped down from his post after he visited Guam and told sailors aboard the Roosevelt the former skipper had either intentionally leaked the letter or was “too naïve or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this.”
Nearly 90 per cent of the Roosevelt crew has been removed from the ship to help curb the spread of COVID-19.
