There was nothing but cheers for the captain who was removed from his duty upon the USS Theodore Roosevelt after it was discovered he raised concerns about an outbreak upon his ship, in hopes to keep his sailors safe and taken care of. The Roosevelt holds almost 5,000 people and is an aircraft carrier.
His name is Capt. Brett Crozier and he’s accused of using “extremely poor judgment” when his letter leaked that had concerns about his crews safety and a potential outbreak on the ship. It was Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly who said the commander used the poor judgement and raised concerns among the sailor’s families.
It was also said that Crozier was removed more for not following the chain of command, likely because his letter of concern was sent to several people over “non-secure unclassified mail.”
Modly said, per a report on NBC News, “I have no doubt in my mind that Captain Crozier did what he thought was in the best interest of the safety and well-being of his crew,” Modly said. “Unfortunately, it did the opposite. It unnecessarily raised the alarm of the families of our sailors and Marines with no plans to address those concerns.”
Modly was met with push-back from sailors who were on the ship. They stated, to NBC News, that “Modly has broken faith with the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt… There was nothing alarming or sensationalist in Capt. Crozier’s letter… It was simply a recitation of the bleak facts facing this warship. Capt. Crozier has the full faith and confidence of this crew, who would sail with him again at a moment’s notice.”
Crozier was filmed disembarking from the USS Theodore Roosevelt surrounded by cheers of “Cap-tain Cro-zier!”
Wrongfully relieved of command but did right by the sailors. #navy @UncleChaps @katebarstool @ZeroBlog30 @CaptainCons pic.twitter.com/M0aZhHNMXT
— Dylan Castillo (@Sotero269) April 3, 2020
The ship was in Guam last week and several members of the crew tested positive. They had 93 positive tests and over 1,000 of the up to 5,000 were then taken off the ship and now rest in isolation in Guam.
It should be noted that Crozier has not been removed from the NAVY and will likely be reassigned.