Fired captain of USS Theodore Roosevelt tests positive for coronavirus as it's revealed top US commanders 'were opposed to his dismissal...

....but were OVERRULED by Navy secretary because Trump wanted him gone'

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*Acting Navy Secretary made decision to remove Capt. Brett Crozier on Thursday

Crozier wrote letter to Navy high command about coronavirus on USS Roosevelt

*He demanded Navy evacuate aircraft carrier due to an outbreak on board

*Crozier's letter was eventually leaked to the news media on Monday

*Military chiefs initially began investigation into the leak of Crozier's letter

*But the acting secretary, Thomas Modly, decided to fire him immediately

*Modly is reported to have been told that the president wanted Crozier gone

*Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, favored a military probe

*Top naval officer, Adm. Michael C. Gilday, also opposed immediate termination

*But they were overruled by Modly, who announced firing on Thursday

*Video online shows sailors giving rousing salute to Modly as he left ship in
Guam

*So far, some 150 sailors who were on board Roosevelt have tested positive

Captain Brett Crozier, the officer who was relieved of command of the aircraft
carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt after a letter warning of a coronavirus outbreak
on board the ship leaked to the press, has tested positive for COVID-19.

Two Naval Academy classmates of Crozier who remain close to the family revealed
the diagnosis to The New York Times on Sunday.

The classmates told the Times that Crozier began to show symptoms of the disease
before he was dismissed by Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly on Thursday.

News of Crozier's diagnosis comes as it was revealed this weekend that the top
US military commander and the most senior naval officer were reportedly opposed
to his dismissal but were overruled by the Trump administration.

General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Admiral
Michael Gilday, the chief of naval operations, believed that the Navy should
have allowed an investigation into the letter written by Crozier to run its
course.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper initially sided with the officers, according to The
Washington Post.

But Esper eventually yielded to Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, who favored
immediately dismissing Crozier because he believed that is what President Trump
wanted.

Crozier was fired four days after he penned a scathing letter to Navy leaders
calling for stronger action to address the COVID-19 outbreak he said was
threatening his sailors lives.

The captain is believed to have sent the letter to several people knowing that
it stood a good chance of being leaked to the press.

Modly, who made the decision on Thursday to relieve Crozier of command of the
Roosevelt, reportedly told colleagues that Trump ‘wants him fired.’

The acting secretary was reportedly told by Gilday as well as several current
and former colleagues that it would be best to allow the military to handle the
situation in-house without interference from the civilian leadership.

When Modly said he wanted Crozier dismissed, Esper reportedly told him: ‘I’ll do
what you want.’

Esper on Sunday defended Modly's decision to fire Crozier, who has emerged as a
sympathetic figure in the eyes of his former sailors as well as a segment of the
public who believes he was unjustly punished for looking out for the health of
his charges.

Esper on the firing of a Navy commander after writing a memo saying that crew
needed help after the coronavirus hit his ship: "I think Acting Secretary Modly
made a very tough decision ... It's just another example how we hold leaders
accountable for their actions" #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/k90BvtwFNM

'I think acting Secretary Modly made a very tough decision - a decision that I
support,' Esper told CNN on Sunday.

'It was based on his view that he had lost faith and confidence in the captain
based on his actions.

'It's just another example (of) how we hold leaders accountable for their
actions.'

Esper was asked if the Trump administration moved too quickly to fire Crozier
instead of allowing the military to complete its probe into the matter.

The defense secretary replied that it was 'not unheard of' for the Navy to fire
a senior officer before an internal investigation is complete.

'All the services at times relieve commanders without the benefit of an
investigation up front because they have lost confidence in them,' Esper said.

'It's certainly not unique to the Navy.

'The Navy has a culture of swiftly and decisively removing captains if they lose
confidence in them.'

During a coronavirus task force press conference Saturday afternoon, Trump said
that the four page letter was 'inappropriate' adding that this wasn't a 'class
on literature'.

It was Navy leaders who made the decision to fire the captain but Trump said he
agreed that it was the right thing to do after Crozier's call for help for his
sailors became public.

'He wrote a letter. A five-page letter from a captain. And the letter was all
over the place. That's not appropriate, I don't think that's appropriate,' Trump
said.

'It looked terrible what he did. To write a letter. I mean this isn't a class on
literature. This is the captain of a massive ship … he shouldn't be talking that
way in a letter.'

Trump also chided Crozier for allowing sailors to be infected in the first
place, claiming that he should not have allowed them to go to land during a stop
to Vietnam at the beginning of March.

The president said that this was not a smart move when there was a pandemic that
could have spread to the ship.

At the same time as the stop-off, Trump himself was dismissing the severity of
the global outbreak and believed it would not pose a massive threat to
Americans.

In defending his decision on Friday, Modly said America's enemies might think
the aircraft carrier was 'crippled' after Crozier's letter was leaked.

Modly and others in the Trump administration have been on the defensive in
explaining the firing after videos emerged of Crozier being given a rowdy
farewell by his crew who were chanting his name as he left the warship.

Modly, who served in the US Navy as a helicopter pilot before becoming a
managing director at consultants PwC, was publicly backed on Friday by Esper and
Milley.

Milley said if the Navy secretary had lost trust in Crozier, 'Then that's it.
It's target down and we're moving on to the next task'.

Admiral Mike Mullen, who served as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff from
2007 until 2011, disagreed with the decision.

'I think the firing was a really bad decision, because it undermines the
authority of the military commanders who are trying to take care of their
troops, and significantly negatively impacts the willingness of commanders to
speak truth to power,' he told the Post.

Modly was also backed by Rear Admiral John Menoni, the region's US Navy
commander, who disagreed with Crozier's assertion that all but 10 percent of the
ship's crew could be removed from the vessel if necessary.

The Navy announced on Saturday that 44 per cent of the crew of the USS Theodore
Roosevelt had been tested for the coronavirus, and 155 service members had
tested positive.

About 1,548 service members had been moved onshore. None had been hospitalized.

The mother of a coronavirus-stricken sailor from the USS Theodore Roosevelt says
she fears for her daughter's health as thousands of crew from the aircraft
carrier are transferred to dry land.

Margalis Fjelstad's daughter is one of the 155 crew who have tested positive for
COVID-19 on board the ship, which is currently docked at US Navel Base Guam.

'She's feeling exhausted, she sleeps most of the day, and a lot of times she's
up and down at night,' Fjelstad told The Washington Post of her daughter's
condition Saturday.

'Her temperature is spiking, then coming down and going up again. Tuesday and
Wednesday, we weren't able to talk on the phone because she couldn't talk and
breathe at the same time'.

Fjelstad stated that her daughter was removed from the Roosevelt earlier this
week following confirmation that she had contracted COVID-19.

She is now quarantined with other female sailors who are also displaying
symptoms of the highly contagious virus.

Some 2,700 sailors are expected to be removed from the Roosevelt by the weekend
as officials scrambled to secure enough hotel rooms to house them near US Naval
Base Guam.

Local islanders, meanwhile, are unhappy about plans to house troops possibly
infected with coronavirus in hotels.

'I am disturbed by the reckless double standard of potentially placing
potentially exposed military personnel in local hotels,' Senator Sabina Flores
Perez wrote in a letter to Guam's governor, Lou Leon Guerrero.

'If sailors are placed in our hotels, we will be exposing lower-wage employees
to greater risk, many of whom are older and have limited or no health benefits
for themselves and their families.'

Captain Daniel Keeler, the ship's executive officer, is now serving as acting
commander.

Modly became acting secretary in November after Richard Spencer was sacked
because wanted to demote and strip shamed Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher of his
Trident pin - against President Trump's wishes.

When he was at PwC, Modley earned at least $700,000 a year and helped the firm
profit from Nato contracts and the rebuilding of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Modly said on Friday: ‘One of the first things I learned as a midshipman was
this phrase that I think became popular in World War II, which is loose lips
sink ships.

'I had wished that I would never have to make a decision like this, but my
responsibilities extend beyond just that individual officer.

'And they go to the safety of that crew, our national security objectives, all
the other ships that are out there in the Pacific that are now perhaps on higher
standard of alert because our adversaries in the region think that one of our
warships might be crippled, which it’s not.'

Navy sources told Foreign Policy on Friday that Crozier was given Modly's
personal cell phone number on Monday.

The sources claim Modly was encouraged to 'call us any time day or night' if he
had any concerns.

Modly said: 'I just can’t have a commanding officer who gets overwhelmed and
uses that type of judgment in the middle of a crisis.

'And this is not an indictment of his entire career. He’s had an absolutely
incredible career. I’m envious of it. He’s done some amazing things.

'But at this particular time, I needed a CO there that could help manage us
through this crisis. And I just didn’t think based on those actions that I could
do that.'


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