Onshore Quarantine of U.S. Aircraft Carrier Sailors Begins on Guam
About 1,000 sailors from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt – roughly a fifth of its crew – were under quarantine at a U.S. naval base on Guam on Thursday as the Navy sought to control a coronavirus outbreak…
About 1,000 sailors from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt – roughly a fifth of its crew – were under quarantine at a U.S. naval base on Guam on Thursday as the Navy sought to control a Coronavirus Outbreak aboard the warship.
The evacuation of sailors from the vessel began on Wednesday, a week after the first coronavirus case was reported on the aircraft carrier, and followed public disclosure of a scathing letter to Navy command from the ship’s captain urging “decisive action” to control the outbreak.
In his four-page letter, the contents of which were confirmed by U.S. officials to Reuters on Tuesday, Captain Brett Crozier described a bleak situation aboard the nuclear-powered carrier as more sailors tested positive for the virus.
The letter put the Pentagon on the defensive about whether it was doing enough to keep the Theodore Roosevelt’s 5,000 crew members safe, and alarmed the families of those aboard the vessel, whose home port is in San Diego.
In the letter, the captain called for more than 4,000 sailors to be removed from the ship and isolated, saying the Navy otherwise would be failing to properly safeguard “our most trusted asset – our sailors.”
Acting U.S. Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said he disagreed with the captain’s assertion that all but 10 percent of the ship’s crew could be removed from the vessel if necessary.
“This ship has weapons on it. It has munitions on it… It requires a certain number of people on that ship to maintain the safety and security of the ship,” Modly said.
Asked whether the captain would face discipline for the letter, he said: “The fact that he wrote the letter up to his chain of command to express his concerns would absolutely not result in any type of retaliation.”
When questioned repeatedly over the leak, he said: “I don’t know who leaked the letter to the media. That would be something that would violate the principles of good order and discipline, if he were responsible for that. But I don’t know that.”