Capt. Brett Crozier is in news and for reasons now the world knows. Giving a brief about Capt Crozier; he was the commander of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt and he was removed from his command for jumping the line of command when approaching higher-ups for apprising about a situation. His fault was that he sent a letter to the Navy pleading for permission to unload his crew, including scores of sailors sickened with COVID-19, in Guam, where it was docked.
However, the letter somehow got leaked and created dire consequences for the captain. The Pentagon was seemingly not doing anything about the situation while the condition on the ship was growing awful.
Capt. Crozier for President
Capt. Crozier became a hero overnight and people started pitching for him for the next 'President'. Footage posted on Facebook and Twitter appears to show hundreds of service members crowding into a hangar around Capt Crozier as he makes his way off the vessel over a gangway to Guam.
The sailors were unanimously chanting "Captain Crozier!"As these young sailors chanted and cheered for him, a voice in the background says: "And that's how you send out one of the greatest Captains you ever had!"
If senior Navy officials are to be believed; the Navy was simply trying to keep up with the historic practice that complaints and requests, 'from whosoever they come', need to go up a formal chain of command.
Reports state that the official sent the letter through an e-mail that went to 20 to 30 people and the message somewhere got leaked eventually to some news organizations and the hullaballoo was created.
Capt Crozier expressed in the letter that he was no longer fit to lead the fast-moving effort to treat the crew and clean the ship.
He was removed from his command after the latter was taken up and published by national dailies and broadcasted on various media sites. And once again, voices were silenced as the Govt takes its own due course of treating something with the 'need of the hour' approach.
What happened leading up to this moment?
Reports stated that during a shore leave in Vietnam; a sailor from Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier caught the virus and once onboard others started getting it too. It was first a sailor or two, then dozens and all of a sudden more than 100 were sick.
In the meantime, the captain received his orders of taking the ship to Guam but he was not allowed to offload most of the sailors giving no relief to those who were sick and who were about to be sick.
The virus was threatening to overwhelm the small medical crew aboard and the Capt knew that not much time was left before people started dying.
He thought that immediate action was needed to save his sailors. He wrote a fiery letter that was sent out to the Navy and in the letter, he demanded that sailors be removed from the ship. This might not have been the best approach for him but it did yield results.
The letter might have got leaked as The Chronicle published it, along with some other influential media houses that were quick to react. The immediate public pressure forced the Navy to concede, and it started arranging to get as many of the crew members as possible off the ship and into hotels in Guam.
Capt Crozier paid a price
Here is Captain Crozier walking away from his ship while sailors chant his name after he was relieved from duty for blowing the whistle on a coronavirus contamination aboard the USS Roosevelt.
— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) April 3, 2020
He sacrificed himself and it sounds like everyone knows it. pic.twitter.com/hwiu7Z1MVV
As a consequence, the acting secretary of the Navy, Thomas Modly, summarily fired the captain. The reason cited was showing "extremely poor judgment."
Though, many disagreed and he was given a rousing hero's sendoff on Thursday.
