Tag: U.S.S Theodore Roosevelt

‘There Will Be Losses’: How a Captain’s Plea Exposed a Rift in the Military

New York Times logoThe coronavirus crisis aboard the carrier Theodore Roosevelt spurred another chapter in the hollowing out of the Navy’s leadership, in particular under the Trump administration.

WASHINGTON — The captain had reached a breaking point.

The aircraft carrier he commanded, the Theodore Roosevelt, was docked in Guam as the coronavirus raced unchecked through its narrow corridors. The warship’s doctors estimated that more than 50 crew members would die, but Capt. Brett E. Crozier’s superiors were balking at what they considered his drastic request to evacuate nearly the entire ship.

Captain Crozier was haunted by the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship of 2,600 passengers in individual cabins where the virus had killed eight people and infected more than 700. The situation on his ship had the potential to be far worse: nearly 5,000 sailors crammed in shared berths, sometimes stacked three high. Eight of his sailors with severe Covid-19 symptoms had already been evacuated to the Navy’s hospital in Guam. Continue reading.

Even Navy Secretary’s Subservience Couldn’t Save Him

The trick to surviving in Donald Trump’s administration is being a shameless toady, willing at any moment to lavish praise on the president. But acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly found that staying on Trump’s good side can be impossibly tricky. He resigned Tuesday in the apparent realization that his strenuous self-abasement was not enough to appease the president.

Last week, Modly relieved the commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, who had emailed higher-ups pleading for the evacuation of sailors aboard the aircraft carrier because of an outbreak of COVID-19. After the letter was leaked to the press, Modly sacked Capt. Brett Crozier for showing “extremely poor judgment” and letting the situation “overwhelm his ability to act professionally.”

Then the secretary flew to Guam to deliver a denunciation of Crozier, whose own sailors had cheered him as he left the ship. Modly boarded the carrier and used its public address system to inform the crew that the captain was “was either too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this.” Continue reading.

Navy chief resigns amid uproar over handling of aircraft carrier coronavirus crisis

The Hill logoActing Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned Tuesday after fanning the flames of a controversy over a coronavirus outbreak on board an aircraft carrier.

In a tweet, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he accepted Modly’s resignation and that undersecretary of the Army James McPherson will take over as acting Navy secretary.

“This morning I accepted Secretary Modly’s resignation. He resigned of his own accord, putting the Navy and the sailors above self so that the USS Theodore Roosevelt, and the Navy as an institution, can move forward,” Esper said in a statement attached to the tweet. Continue reading.

Acting Navy secretary apologizes for mocking captain who warned about coronavirus

In an extraordinary reversal, Thomas Modly, acting secretary of the Navy, has apologized for mocking Capt. Brett Crozier, who was removed from his post after warning about a coronavirus outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt. NBC White House correspondent Kristen Welker reports for TODAY. View the post here.

Acting Navy chief fired Crozier for ‘panicking’ — and before Trump could intervene

Washington Post logoActing Navy secretary Thomas Modly, in an extensive interview about the firing of the commander of a disease-threatened aircraft carrier, said he acted because he believed the captain was “panicking” under pressure — and wanted to make the move himself, before President Trump ordered the captain’s dismissal.

“I didn’t want to get into a decision where the president would feel that he had to intervene because the Navy couldn’t be decisive,” Modly told me in a telephone call from Hawaii at about 1 a.m. Sunday, Washington time. He continued: “If I were president, and I saw a commanding officer of a ship exercising such poor judgment, I would be asking why the leadership of the Navy wasn’t taking action itself.”

Modly offered a lengthy account of his actions in the dismissal Thursday of Capt. Brett Crozier, the commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt. The nuclear-power aircraft carrier with a crew of about 4,800 had been stricken by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus. On March 30, Crozier sent an emotional email pleading for help, which leaked the next day. Two days after that, Modly fired him — generating criticism from former senior military officials, who expressed deep concern about the impact of the precipitous act on morale and on commanders’ willingness to speak out with unwelcome news. Continue reading.

Inside the ouster of Capt. Brett Crozier

Washington Post logoCivilian control of the military is part of the American bedrock. Acting Navy secretary Thomas Modly used that prerogative unwisely Thursday when he short-circuited a preliminary military investigation and fired an aircraft carrier captain who had pleaded for help against the coronavirus pandemic sweeping his crew.

The sudden firing of Capt. Brett Crozier, the commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, has created another unsettling moment for a country traumatized by the worsening pandemic — and for a Navy already rocked by President Trump’s remarkable intervention last year in disciplinary cases involving the elite Navy SEALs. Crozier’s crew cheered him as a hero as he walked alone down the gangway, leaving what will almost surely be his last command. Former vice president Joe Biden tweeted his support for Crozier.

It isn’t clear what role Trump may have played in Crozier’s ouster. Modly told one colleague Wednesday, the day before he announced the move: “Breaking news: Trump wants him fired.” Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper apparently obtained White House approval for a preliminary investigation into Crozier’s conduct, a probe that Modly preempted with the firing. Esper appears to have left the final decision about how to handle the matter to Modly, who last month was passed over as Trump’s permanent choice for the job. Continue reading.