Navy secretary demands deeper probe on carrier’s ousted captain

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WASHINGTON — Acting Navy Secretary James McPherson said he’s delayed a decision on whether to return the ousted captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the aircraft carrier where the coronavirus swept through the crew.

Putting aside a recommendation by the Navy’s top uniformed officer to restore Capt. Brett Crozier to his post, McPherson said in a statement on Wednesday that “I have unanswered questions that the preliminary inquiry has identified and that can only be answered by a deeper review.”

Crozier was dismissed as the carrier’s captain by then-acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly on April 2 for writing an impassioned memo beseeching the service to do more to remedy the increasingly dire situation aboard the ship. Modly said Crozier failed to keep his concerns within the chain of command.

Adm. Michael Gilday, the chief of naval operations, briefed Defense Secretary Mark Esper Friday on the conclusion of an investigation that started after Crozier circulated his memo and ended with Gilday recommending the captain’s reinstatement. But Esper put off a decision, with aides saying he wanted to study the full written report commissioned by the Navy.

Now, McPherson’s demand for further review buys Esper time before he has to make a politically sensitive decision.

President Donald Trump’s mixed messages on Crozier’s ouster created a dilemma for Esper, who is far more deferential to the president than his famously independent predecessor, Jim Mattis, who was Trump’s first defense secretary.

Trump hasn’t commented on the Navy’s recommendation to restore Crozier as captain of the Roosevelt. On Wednesday Trump repeated his assessment that Crozier “wanted to be Ernest Hemingway” with his lengthy memo and that he’s “a very, very good man who had a very bad day.”

House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith — who has previously said Crozier should be returned as captain — said Wednesday that question “should have been clearly answered” by now.

But the Democrat from Washington state told reporters it’s “perfectly legitimate to extend the investigation about everything that happened” with the coronavirus outbreak on the Roosevelt and how those in the chain of command responded.

The Roosevelt episode has underscored broader turmoil in the Navy’s leadership and its relations with Trump. Modly had served as acting secretary since November. His predecessor as Navy secretary, Richard Spencer, was fired by Esper amid a Pentagon dust-up over Trump’s insistence that a Navy SEAL acquitted of murder should be allowed to keep a Trident decoration signifying his service.

In Crozier’s memo, which promptly leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle, he said: “We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die.” Crozier’s main request — that the vast majority of the crew be taken off the ship so the spread of the virus could be slowed and the ship cleaned — has now been fulfilled.

Modly’s response to the crisis — including his move to fly to the carrier sidelined in Guam where he denigrated Crozier to his crew as “stupid or naive” — led him to resign days later after issuing an apology.

The Navy said on April 24 that all of the Roosevelt’s crew members had been tested for COVID-19, with 840 positive and 4,098 negative results. Of the positive cases, 63 sailors recovered. Almost all of the crew — 4,234 sailors — have been moved ashore. One sailor died after getting treatment in an intensive care unit on Guam. Crozier is among those who became infected.

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(Glen Carey and Justin Sink contributed to this report.)

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