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Acting Navy Secretary Resigns After Comments Critical of Relieved Captain

Carla Babb

   WASHINGTON - The number of coronavirus cases from the USS Theodore
   Roosevelt aircraft carrier continues to rise in Guam, as the official
   responsible for relieving the ship's captain resigned Tuesday.

   Navy officials told VOA on Tuesday that 230 of the Roosevelt's sailors
   had tested positive for coronavirus, which as of early Tuesday was more
   than 15% of all U.S. service members who have been confirmed with the
   virus worldwide.

   Last week, the carrier's commanding officer, Capt. Brett Crozier, wrote
   a letter of concern to his superiors, urging them to take'¯"decisive
   action" to prevent deaths from the coronavirus.

   Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly, who fired Crozier on
   Thursday, resigned Tuesday morning "on his own accord," Secretary of
   Defense Mark Esper said.

     This morning I accepted Secretary Modly's resignation. With the
     approval of the President, I am appointing current Army
     Undersecretary Jim McPherson as acting Secretary of the Navy.
     [1]pic.twitter.com/FvfgOwuXw4
     -- @EsperDoD (@EsperDoD) [2]April 7, 2020

   "I have the deepest respect for anyone who serves our country, and who
   places the greater good above all else. Secretary Modly did that today,
   and I wish him all the best," Esper said, adding that Jim McPherson,
   the current Army undersecretary, would replace Modly as acting
   secretary of the Navy.

   Modly issued an apology to the crew late Monday after calling the
   captain "too naive or too stupid to be the commanding officer" for
   sending his letter to at least 20 Navy personnel.

   In a [3]recording of Modly's remarks to the Roosevelt crew, a sailor
   can be heard screaming an expletive in disapproval immediately after
   this critical comment.

   Crozier was cheered and applauded by the ship's crew as he left the
   ship last week.'¯

   Roughly 2,000 of the nearly'¯5,000'¯sailors aboard the'¯Roosevelt'¯have
   been evacuated off the ship in an effort'¯to clean it after the
   COVID-19'¯outbreak.

   Comfort medical ship changes course

   Meanwhile, officials say the Navy hospital ship Comfort, docked in New
   York Harbor, will treat some of the patients suffering most acutely
   from the coronavirus, in addition to patients needing care for trauma.
   Defense officials say patients less severely affected with COVID-19
   will remain at the Army-built temporary hospital in the Jacob K. Javits
   Convention Center in Manhattan.

References

   1. https://t.co/FvfgOwuXw4
   2. https://twitter.com/EsperDoD/status/1247625834011209728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
   3. https://soundcloud.com/paul-szoldra/acting-secnav-modley-criticizing-capt-crozier-to-sailors-onboard-uss-theodore-roosevelt

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