Defense Minister Mark Esper on Sunday supported the decision to dismiss the commander of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt who had sounded the alarm to evacuate his ship contaminated with coronavirus. But Mark Esper, obviously embarrassed, took care not to fully endorse this sanction and refused to say if it won the support of the military staff.
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Secretary of the Navy, Thomas Modly, "made a difficult decision (...). I have full confidence in him and in the leadership of the Navy. And I support their decision, " said the head of the Pentagon on ABC. Mark Esper also declined to say whether President Donald Trump had weighed on the decision.
USS Theodore Roosevelt commander Brett Crozier was removed from office Thursday after writing a multi-page letter to his superiors calling for the immediate evacuation of his ship, immobilized at Guam in the Pacific, several cases of Covid-19 having been recorded in the building.
“We are not at war. There is no reason for sailors to die, "said Captain Crozier in the leaked missive, which was published by the California daily San Francisco Chronicle. A gesture that did not please the American president. "It's awful what he did, writing a letter," said Donald Trump on Saturday during his daily press conference on the coronavirus.
The immediate dismissal without formal preliminary investigation of Brett Crozier, acclaimed by his sailors on his departure from the ship, was strongly criticized, in particular by several elected Democrats. "Commander Crozier has been faithful to his duty, to his sailors and to his country," the Democratic candidate for the White House Joe Biden tweeted on Friday. "Navy management has sent a chilling message on how to tell the truth to those in power . " "It was the Trump administration that lacked judgment, not a brave officer who sought to protect its sailors," he added.
Mark Esper said on Sunday that an investigation was underway and that only 155 sailors had tested positive for coronavirus, exhibiting only "moderate symptoms" , out of a total of 4,865 crew members.
Currently in quarantine on the island of Guam, Brett Crozier himself has tested positive for coronavirus, announced Sunday the New York Times , information which was not immediately confirmed by the United States Navy.