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Navy Head Calls for Aircraft Carrier COVID-19 Probe
The acting secretary of the Navy has called for a more thorough investigation into "unanswered questions" about events aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, as sailors who had been quarantined for weeks return to the vessel.
"I have unanswered questions that the preliminary inquiry has identified and that can only be answered by a deeper review," Acting Navy Secretary James McPherson said.
The carrier was the first Navy ship to experience a major COVID-19 outbreak at sea, sidelining the vessel in late March.
At the center of the review lies the fate of the Roosevelt's captain, Capt. Brett Crozier, who was removed from his post for raising COVID-19 concerns in an email to superiors.
Media reports have said Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Gilday recommended the unprecedented step of reinstating Crozier. McPherson on Wednesday said he was directing Gilday to expand the Navy's preliminary report with a follow-on review.
The previous acting secretary of the Navy, who fired the captain, resigned after audio was released to the public of him calling Captain Crozier "too naïve or too stupid to be the commanding officer" for sending his letter of concern to at least 20 Navy personnel.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith, who spoke with McPherson earlier Wednesday, told reporters that while it was "perfectly legitimate" to extend the Roosevelt investigation, he felt Crozier should be reinstated.
"From everything that's come out and everything that I've seen, there was no reason to relieve him of his command," Smith said.
Smith also said that while he doesn't believe U.S. President Donald Trump has tried to directly influence this particular situation, he is worried about a "culture developing" that caters to the president's ego.
"The president has made it clear that as far as he's concerned, the single most important attribute that anybody in the federal government can have, forgive me for the bluntness, is a willingness to kiss the president's ass as often as possible," Smith said.
At the height of the ship's outbreak Monday, 955 of the Roosevelt's nearly 5,000 sailors had tested positive. The Navy says 940 of those are still considered COVID-19 positive and must test negative two consecutive times before being considered free of the coronavirus.
One of the carrier's sailors died from the coronavirus on April 13.
Sailors, who have been quarantined on Guam for weeks, started moving back to the carrier Wednesday, a Navy official told VOA.
The move will take at least several days and marks a critical turning point in a situation that has rocked the Navy's fleet in the Pacific, a major region to American security interests.
On another U.S. Navy ship, the USS Kidd destroyer, 64 of its 330 sailors have tested positive. The vessel has now docked in San Diego, according to the Navy.
The Kidd left its port in Hawaii on March 20, Navy officials said. More than a month later, the first sailor showed symptoms, was evacuated and subsequently tested positive for the virus.
National Security correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report from Washington.
April 30, 2020 at 02:17AM
