"Captain Crozier!"— CNN (@CNN) April 3, 2020
Sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier cheer for Capt. Brett Crozier as he disembarks the ship for the final time.
Crozer was relieved of his command after issuing a warning about a coronavirus outbreak onboard. https://t.co/GSKBvkFuvk pic.twitter.com/SBeuWZQ5mh
Imagine if, upon seeing an officer relieved of his command given this kind of farewell, and knowing he was relieved because he thought he was acting on behalf of the physical welfare and morale of his crew (because one did the relieving), an Acting Secretary of the Navy actually fixed his mouth to tell those sailors that this officer acted in a manner that was naïve, stupid, or had an agenda contrary to the considerations of his command. That he said that, after admitting that he relieved said officer because it was better to do that than be pressured by the Commander in Chief to act. That he only was Acting Secretary of the Navy because the former office-holder resigned because he disagreed with the President's treatment with respects to a war criminal. (Implying he wasn't the kind of guy to take that kind of interference in any kind of way.)
And after realizing that maybe, calling this officer naïve and stupid was wrong, walking it back to the effect of saying, forget the words that came out of my mouth.
Just so, somehow, in the span of a few days, Sec. Modley has managed to mangle every public aspect of this situation.
And yet, there were opinions about how to handle the situation regarding COVID-19-stricken sailors on aircraft carriers that were worse and more intolerable that could have played out if Crozier hadn't been vocal (as in, running the "risk" of letting the public become aware of the potential hazard to our servicemembers, and possibly give leverage to his point of view, which was a reasonable and prescient risk, I think). There is a non-zero chance of even young and healthy people with no underlying health conditions dying from this disease, or suffering long-term heart and/or lung damage. Crozier blew his career-path to prevent that. As far as I'm concerned, he did a hard thing that was right. The people under his command weren't guinea pigs and taking the time to get his crew healthy and ready was better than limping on in the face of maybe needing to be ready.
If there's any questionable leadership here, I tend to look a little further up the chain. This kind of activity centers on what messaging was beneficial to the Administration's downplaying of the virus in general, without respects to the actual needs of the people who serve, which should be a more concerning reality. In other words--what the entire fuck? And why the hell wouldn't we take care of our fucking servicemembers? And how degenerate are conditions when people are expected to get sick to save face? And I am not the mama of all whatever thousand of them, but I expect them to be treated right. Etc.
This kind of PR spinning (and badly at that) is what I would call a case of questionable leadership. And not whatever Captain Crozier tried to do with his letter.
UPDATE: Modly resigns.
