Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly issued a series of sharp comments Monday while speaking to Theodore Roosevelt sailors about their ship\u2019s recently fired commanding officer, Capt. Brett Crozier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Modly\u2019s comments, which were delivered over the aircraft carrier\u2019s 1MC, come in the wake of a leaked letter Crozier penned<\/a> pleading for U.S. intervention to stifle a COVID-19 outbreak on the 4,800-person ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cozier\u2019s letter, which was first published by the San Francisco Chronicle, was reportedly sent up the captain\u2019s immediate chain of command in a \u201cnon-secure, unclassified\u201d email that included \u201c20 or 30\u201d additional recipients, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly told reporters Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was a betrayal,” Modly told sailors Monday, according to a recording of the message obtained by Navy Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd I can tell you one other thing: because he did that he put it in the public\u2019s forum and it is now a big controversy in Washington, D.C. If he didn\u2019t think, in my opinion, that this information wasn\u2019t going to get out to the public, in this day and information age that we live in, then he was either A, too na\u00efve or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this. The alternative is that he did this on purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Crozier\u2019s letter, penned when only a small portion of the ship\u2019s crew had been evacuated, urged the Navy to remove the majority of the ship\u2019s sailors save for approximately 10 percent of the crew who would remain onboard to operate critical systems. The remainder would move into isolated quarantine in Guam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “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,” Crozier wrote in the letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response, the Navy said it was working<\/a> to evacuate a total of 2,700 sailors from the ship, but stressed that the entire crew could not depart the ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The service subsequently made the decision to fire Crozier<\/a>, who was cheered by the crew of the hulking aircraft carrier as walked along the gangway and departed the ship for the last time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOkay, that\u2019s just not acceptable. \u2026 When I have a commanding officer who\u2019s responsible for a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, with all that lethality and all that responsibility \u2026 that demonstrated extremely poor judgement in the middle of a crisis,\u201d Modly told reporters last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Crozier\u2019s hasty dismissal<\/a> prompted immediate backlash from lawmakers in the House Armed Services Committee who accused Modly of acting irrationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThrowing the commanding officer overboard without a thorough investigation is not going to solve the growing crisis aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt,” the committee\u2019s statement read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat\u2019s more, we are very concerned about the chilling effect this dismissal will have on commanders throughout the Department of Defense. Dismissing a commanding officer for speaking out on issues critical to the safety of those under their command discourages others from raising similar concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than 250,000 people have since signed a petition calling for Crozier\u2019s reinstatement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said in an interview<\/a> with CNN\u2019s State of the Union on Sunday that the White House did not push for Crozier\u2019s ouster and said Modly \u201claid out very reasonably and very deliberately the reasons\u201d for removing Crozier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The unceremonious conclusion to Crozier\u2019s command marked the end of tumultuous nine-day unraveling of one of the Navy\u2019s most stalwart vessels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On March 24 the command first reported that three of its sailors had tested positive for COVID-19<\/a>. The infected crew were airlifted off of the ship as a precaution, but within one week confirmed cases in the ship\u2019s tight quarters spiked to nearly 100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Navy officials responded by ordering the carrier to port in Guam<\/a>, just over two weeks after the Roosevelt visited Da Nang, Vietnam. The decision to continue as scheduled with the Vietnam port call was made at a time when the country had only 16 confirmed cases, all of which were reportedly confined to the northern city of Hanoi, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pierside in Guam, Crozier earnestly wrote the letter that would cost him his job within a matter of days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt raised alarm bells unnecessarily,\u201d Modly told reporters last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt undermines our efforts and the chain of command\u2019s efforts to address this problem, and creates a panic and this perception that the Navy\u2019s not on the job, that the government\u2019s not on the job, and it\u2019s just not true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Modly issued a statement Monday concerning his address to the Roosevelt sailors after the transcript and audio of the speech began circulating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe spoken words were from the heart, and meant for them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI stand by every word I said, even, regrettably any profanity that may have been used for emphasis. Anyone who has served on a Navy ship would understand. I ask, but don\u2019t expect, that people read them in their entirety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As of Monday, 173 sailors aboard the Roosevelt have tested positive for COVID-19, Navy officials said. Approximately 40 percent of the ship\u2019s crew is still awaiting testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Sunday, it was reported that Capt. Crozier was among those confirmed<\/a> to have contracted the novel coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n