This is how it all started:
January 17: USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71, or TR), a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, departs Naval Base San Diego with 4,865 sailors aboard and Capt. Brett Crozier in command. TR sails in company with its strike group on a deployment to the western Pacific region
This is where the story stood, in human terms, on April 14:
• 589 TR crew members have tested positive for COVID-19. 3,922 have tested negative. 92% of the crew has been tested.
• Four TR sailors are being treated at Naval Hospital Guam, one in the ICU.
• 4,024 sailors, or nearly 83% of the crew, have moved to isolation accommodations ashore.
No one knows how this sad story will end, but plenty of opinions have been expressed, including at The Moderate Voice, here and here, and much additional information – – sometimes correcting or contradicting previous reports — has appeared.
Here is a what we now know:
Contrary to initial reports (and blame attributed), the once-firm belief that the COVID-19 virus “meandered” on board the Theodore Roosevelt during a March 5-8 port call to Danang, Vietnam, has now been “called into question – and potentially debunked.”
Those reports claimed the virus may have been brought on board by sailors who stayed at a hotel in Danang, where two British nationals who had also stayed there at the time tested positive for COVID-19.
However, each of the 30 sailors who stayed at the hotel tested negative for the virus.
Eight sailors “who first tested positive did so over the course of March 24 and 25, more than two weeks after the ship departed Da Nang — a time period in excess of the virus’ incubation.”
According to a Wall Street Journal report Wednesday, “Navy officials now believe the outbreak on the carrier Roosevelt was initiated by the ship’s routine flight operations.” That is, the virus may have been brought on board by “numerous carrier on-board delivery flights originating in Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam [that] occurred in the days following the ship’s departure from Da Nang.”
An F/A-18F Super Hornet launches from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt.(MC3 Alex Corona/U.S Navy via Navy Times)
When the Roosevelt docked in Guam on March 26, “the hulking ship was already being ransacked by the outbreak of an invisible enemy.”
The next day, the Theodore Roosevelt commanding officer, Capt. Brett Crozier, penned the now-famous letter, raising alarm over the uncontrolled contagion aboard his ship and asking for help in evacuating most of the sailors off the ship. Crozier wrote: “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.”
It has now been reported that former Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly who flew to Guam (at an airfare tab of $243,151.65 to the taxpayers) to berate Capt. Crozier, took the trip before formally asking for a waiver to the policy that limits “senior officials to one air crew per trip to curb the cost of travel by military aircraft”
As to who made the decision for the Roosevelt to stop in Vietnam, a decision strongly criticized by Trump after-the fact while still holding “arena-sized rallies,” it was made “by high-ranking Pacific military officials,” according to The Stars and Stripes.
And now, former Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus (2009 to 2017.) has said the Navy should bring all its ships into port and quarantine the majority of the crews while the vessels undergo a deep clean — or else face a COVID-19 outbreak similar to the one aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, according to the Navy Times.
As more than 650 Roosevelt sailors have tested positive for the virus, including Capt. Crozier, and as one sailor has succumbed to the virus, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Wednesday that once the USS Theodore Roosevelt has been cleaned, the carrier could be back at sea in a few weeks.
In a recent opinion piece at USA TODAY, Brett Odom**, a friend of Capt. Crozier, wrote, “I am certain Brett Crozier will be found to have acted honorably, with the best intentions for his ship, his crew and his Navy foremost in his heart.”
Perhaps the recently completed investigation, to be reviewed soon by Esper, will restore honor to Capt. Crozier.
In breaking news, CNN is reporting that the Defense Secretary has an ‘open mind’ on the possibility of reinstating the fired aircraft carrier commander
Added:
Also, read how the Navy may reinstate [the] fired Captain to command of Roosevelt:
Adm. Michael M. Gilday, the chief of naval operations, has indicated that he may reinstate Captain Crozier, who is viewed as a hero by his crew for putting their lives above his career, officials said.
**Brett Odom a 1992 graduate of the Naval Academy served on active duty as a Naval Aviator flying the F/A-18 Hornet for 11 years, with multiple deployments at sea including combat operations in Operation Southern Watch and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Unless otherwise indicated, quotes and information for this article are from the Navy Times “COVID-19 outbreak on Theodore Roosevelt sparked by flight crews, officials believe”
