Hundreds of sailors on Friday cheered for a U.S. Navy captain who was fired for going outside the chain of command to warn about a coronavirus outbreak onboard his aircraft carrier.
Capt. Brett Crozier was dismissed and forced to leave the USS Theodore Roosevelt after he warned members of President Donald Trump’s administration and top Pentagon officials that the coronavirus had infected more than 100 sailors on the ship.
“That’s how you send out one of the greatest captains you ever had,” says a sailor in a video shared by Stars and Stripes, which shows a large crowd of sailors cheering and chanting Crozier’s name as he leaves the ship. “The GOAT [Greatest of All Time], the man for the people.”
Crozier sent a letter to top officials that was later leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle and published earlier this week. It said that “if we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our sailors.”
Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modley said that the letter “created a… little bit of panic on the ship,” and that Crozier “allowed the complexity of his challenge with the [coronavirus] breakout on the ship to overwhelm his ability to act professionally. It creates a panic and creates the perception that the Navy is not on the job, the government’s not on the job, and it’s just not true.”
The ship has since docked in Guam and about 1,000 sailors have been removed, with a further 2,700 set to leave by Friday.
A Change.org petition calling for Crozier’s reinstatement has reached over 72,000 signatures, as of Friday morning.