The captain of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier that has more than 100 cases of coronavirus wrote a stunning plea for help to senior military officials.
Said the captain:
“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. “The spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating.”
The "not at [general conventional] war" part is key, as I noted in this recent post that mentioned the infections in two of our carriers:
Mind you, if we were at war, both carriers would fight. As would the rest of the military. As an institution it is built to operate while suffering losses. The carriers would fight less effectively, more slowly, and with more non-combat casualties even before you consider combat losses. But they would fight. As would the rest of our military, even as it takes steps to limit the damage from the epidemic.
Obviously, we are "at war" now with troops fighting every day. But you know what he means. We can kill jihadis without that carrier even if it could be crucial to keep her in the fight during a conventional war against a great power.
Get the crew off, take care of them ashore, and deep clean that ship.
UPDATE: Although I wouldn't call this a "stunning plea for help" as much as I would say it is an honest reporting of a serious problem that requires a rapid decision by people above him in the chain of command. He's doing his job. He isn't hiding the problem.
UPDATE: Like I've said:
In his letter, Crozier presented two scenarios to leaders, one in which the 4,000 sailors of the carrier would remain at sea, fight sick and suffer losses from the virus. It’s unclear how many sailor are infected with reports ranging from 30 to close to 100.
“We go to war with the force we have and fight sick. We never achieve a COVID free TR,” he wrote. “There will be losses to the virus.”
The second was to pause the operations of the carrier, quarantine sailors and disinfect the ship with a skeleton crew aboard to maintain the nuclear reactor and essential systems.
If we were in a shooting naval war the ship would go to sea and deal with the problem as best it can while fighting. That is not the situation we face.
UPDATE: Well good:
The U.S. Navy says it will remove the majority of USS Theodore Roosevelt’s crew so the aircraft carrier can be disinfected, one day after its commanding officer sent an urgent message asking for help controlling a COVID-19 outbreak.
That's the right thing to do under the circumstances, I think.
UPDATE: Yes:
Having felt many times the surge of pride that goes with leading a ship into a deployment, I cannot imagine how wrenching the feeling of signing that letter must have been for the captain. But he made the right choice, and the Navy will back him up[.]
The captain made the right decision.
UPDATE: Although if he leaked the letter, I can't say that relieving him of command is the wrong action. Pity, though.
UPDATE: The Navy is unforgiving of errors by ship captains--especially the few who command an aircraft carrier. So I can't say I disagree with the Navy for relieving the captain, under the circumstances.
