Naive and Stupid

The incident involving the USS Theodore Roosevelt one of the navy’s 11 aircraft carriers can be seen as a microcosm of the mishandling of the coronavirus by the federal government.  According to the Washington Post, the well respected  Captain Brett Crozier wrote a blast email to 20 or 30 naval aviators warning them about an outbreak of coronavirus on his ship. The report says Crozier may have even worried that his supervisor Read Admiral Stuart Baker would not have allowed him to send a warning letter to Navy leaders. Baker confirmed to Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly that he would not have allowed Crozier to send such a letter to naval officials. Of course, the letter got leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle. Now, it gets worse.

The Roosevelt is sent to Guam and docked. Sailors were tested. Of the 4,865 crew, 2,000 were taken of the ship and 290 tested positive. Now the Navy has a mess on its hands. Acting Secretary Modly had only been on the job for a few months because Trump fired the previous Navy Secretary because he objected to Trump reversing a military court’s decision to demote Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher who was convicted of posing for a picture of dead ISIS fighter. He was acquitted of more serious war crimes. Modly, like so many in the Trump administration had the title of “acting” because so many people have quit or been fired. The military is all about chain of command, and the Navy believed Crozier violated it.  In the letter, Crozier pushed for a “political solution” and “immediate and decisive action” to deal with the outbreak on the ship. The Navy said Crozier was overwhelmed by the situation. Modly said Crozier was “panicking” and announced he was relieving Crozier of command. Now, remember this isn’t some officer in charge of just any ship. There are only 11 aircraft carriers in the entire US Navy. The people in command of these ships go through an intense selection and training process. They are the best of the best. Crozier was well respected by his colleagues and his crew. Hundreds of his crew cheered and chanted his name as he walked off the carrier. I don’t think that’s what the Navy wanted to see. Still getting worse.

Acting Navy Secretary Modly than flies half way around the world to Guam. He addresses the crew over the ship’s broadcast system. He rips Crozier to the crew that had just cheered the captain. Modly said, “If he (Crozier) didn’t think, in my opinion, that this information wasn’t going to get out into the public, in this day and information age that we live in, then he was either A, too naive or too stupid to be a commander of a ship like this.” Modly went on to call Crozier’s actions, “a betrayal of trust…about a martyr CO who wasn’t getting the help he needed.” He also used some profanity. Of course, in this Information Age, someone on the ship recorded the address. You can also hear crew members using profanity reacting to Modly. Still getting even worse.

Now, Modly’s boss Defense Secretary Mark Esper realized Modly went too far and he needed to apologize for his remarks. Modly writes, “I want to apologize directly to Captain Crozier, his family, and the entire crew of the Theodore Roosevelt for any pain my remarks may have caused.” He added Crozier was “smart and passionate.” Crozier also has the virus. Esper said he didn’t ask Modly to resign, but of course, Modly had no choice. He’s out. These are people at the top of our military who did everything wrong in handling a serious situation in the middle of a pandemic. Crozier may have been wrong in the way he went about asking for help and should have been reprimanded. Relieving him of command is drastic. But you don’t justify it by humiliating him and embarrassing him in front of his crew who you know are upset by the action you’ve taken. It’s just an example of the poor national leadership we have seen since the beginning of the crisis and continues on a daily basis. When we desperately need informed and smart, we keep getting naive and stupid. Maybe we need a vaccine for that too.