A Tragicomedy of Errors

I support the U.S. military, my father. three uncles and an aunt served. That support doesn't mean I believe they never screw up, we have an unfortunate example before us.

Captain Brett Crozier of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt confronted a Covid-19 outbreak on his ship and believed, correctly or otherwise, that his superior wasn't taking it seriously. His behavior suggests his boss wouldn't let him take steps to ameliorate the situation.

So he wrote a perhaps intemperate email up the chain of command, someone leaked it to the media, and the Acting Secretary of the Navy relieved him from command. After which that Acting Secretary flew out to the ship, told the crew the former captain was "naive and stupid" and reportedly was booed by the crew. He has since resigned, likely under pressure.

Now CNBC reports that the Navy has recommended reinstating Captain Brett Crozier as captain of the ill-fated Theodore Roosevelt. It sits in port at Guam while they try to get the CoV outbreak under control. Social distancing simply isn't possible on a warship; reportedly over 800 of the nearly 4100 crew have tested positive for CoV.

This whole thing is a public relations disaster, start to finish. Nobody ends up looking good, not the Navy, not the Administration, and particularly not Captain Crozier's boss who seemingly told him to tough it out and not be a wimp. Whoever stonewalled Crozier should be thinking about taking retirement more or less yesterday.