Top Navy officials have called for ousted USS Roosevelt Captain Brett Crozier to be reinstated, in the latest saga for the coronavirus-str...
Top Navy officials have called for ousted USS Roosevelt Captain Brett Crozier to be reinstated, in the latest saga for the coronavirus-stricken ship.
The chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Michael M. Gilday, and the acting Navy secretary, James McPherson, pushed Defense Secretary Mark Esper to reinstate Crozier to his position Friday in a shock turnaround, after the commander was controversially fired last month for sending a letter exposing an outbreak on board the aircraft carrier.
Esper has not immediately accepted the recommendations but has instead asked for more time to review the decision.
This comes as 840 crew members on board the Roosevelt have now been infected by coronavirus and one sailor has died.
Top Navy officials have called for ousted US Roosevelt Captain Crozier (pictured) to be reinstated to his role
Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly (left) was forced to resign amid a backlash over Crozier's ousting. Defense Secretary Mark Esper (right) was handed the recommendations Friday for Crozier's reinstatement but has asked for more time to decide on an outcome
Esper had been expected to announce the results of the Navy's investigation into the matter Friday afternoon.
But defense officials told CNN the press conference had been canceled and phone calls between top lawmakers, Esper and the Navy regarding the matter have now been postponed until next week.
Navy leaders are said to be surprised at Esper's move to delay the outcome of the investigation after they thought he would leave the process in the hands of military officials, according to the New York Times.
Earlier on Friday, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said Esper was going into his meeting with Gilday 'with an open mind' and that 'he is generally inclined to support Navy leadership and their decisions.'
Esper has also previously said he was open to the possibility of reinstating Crozier to his post.
'It will come to me at some point in time. As I'm in the chain of command, I can't comment on that further, but I got to keep an open mind with regard to everything,' Esper told NBC News last Thursday.
Esper was pushed on whether the decision to reinstate Crozier would mean that his firing was wrong in the first place but he refused to comment.
'We've got to take this one step at a time, let the investigation within the navy conclude itself ... and we'll make very reasoned opinions and judgement as this progresses,' he responded.
Gilday has also previously indicated that he may reinstate Crozier.
Gilday and McPherson, Modly's successor, concluded last week that their investigation into the matter showed Crozier should not have been stripped of his role as commander, officials said.
The outcome of the investigation was not confirmed until they briefed Millay Tuesday and Esper Friday, the Times reported.
840 crew members on board the USS Roosevelt (pictured) have now been infected by coronavirus and one sailor has died
The ship was thrust into the international spotlight when its captain Brett Crozier (pictured) was relieved of his command by the Navy on April 2 after he sounded the alarm over the outbreak on board his ship
The reinstatement of Crozier would be a shock turn of events, after he was famously fired last month when he penned a scathing letter to Navy leaders on April 2 calling for stronger action to address the COVID-19 outbreak he said was threatening his sailors lives.
The email was leaked and hit headlines, leading Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly to fire Crozier from his command of the nuclear aircraft carrier four days later.
Both Gilday and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had advised Modly not to ax Crozier before an investigation was completed into the leaked memo.
But, according to officials, Modly made the rash decision to fire the captain because he thought it was what President Trump wanted.
Mody faced a backlash over his decision to oust the commander, with the move dividing the public, the military and politicians.
Crozier left the ship as a hero - with his crew cheering and giving him a raucous send-off in a video that went viral online.
A photo provided by the US Navy shows Chief Petty Officer Charles Robert Thacker Jr., 41, of Fort Smith, Arkansas, assigned to the USS Theodore Roosevelt, who died from the coronavirus on Monday at US Naval Hospital Guam
Modly came under fire for flying out to the Roosevelt and branding Crozier 'naive' and 'stupid' for allegedly sharing his letter outside the chain of command.
The secretary stepped down from his role hours later.
Crozier has emerged as a hero from the saga as his fears over his crew's safety proved real, when one sailor who tested positive for coronavirus while aboard the aircraft carrier died last week.
Chief Petty Officer Charles Robert Thacker Jr., 41, died in Guam on April 13, 11 days after Crozier's firing.
The Navy confirmed Thacker's death last week, saying he died at the US Naval Hospital in Guam of COVID-19, as his wife flew 6,200 miles from her San Diego military base to be by his bedside in his final moments.
Thacker was the first active-duty military member to die of COVID-19.
He had tested positive for coronavirus on March 30 and was taken off the ship and placed in 'isolation housing' along with four other sailors at the Guam Navy hospital.
He tested positive the same day that Crozier's letter begging the Navy to evacuate the virus-stricken vessel was leaked.
On April 9, Thacker was found unresponsive during a medical check and was moved to the Navy Hospital's intensive care unit.
In total, 840 sailors or 17 percent of all 5,000 crew members have been struck down by the virus.
Crozier has also tested positive for the infection and is awaiting another test to see if he has got the all-clear.
It's believed sailors originally picked up the virus during a port call in Da Nang, Vietnam on March 5.
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