Acting Navy chief fired Crozier for ‘panicking’ — and before Trump could intervene

By David Ignatius
Columnist
April 5, 2020 at 5:43 p.m. EDT

Acting Navy secretary Thomas Modly, in an extensive interview about the firing of the commander of a disease-threatened aircraft carrier, said he acted because he believed the captain was “panicking” under pressure — and wanted to make the move himself, before President Trump ordered the captain’s dismissal.

“I didn’t want to get into a decision where the president would feel that he had to intervene because the Navy couldn’t be decisive,” Modly told me in a telephone call from Hawaii at about 1 a.m. Sunday, Washington time. He continued: “If I were president, and I saw a commanding officer of a ship exercising such poor judgment, I would be asking why the leadership of the Navy wasn’t taking action itself."

Modly offered a lengthy account of his actions in the dismissal Thursday of Capt. Brett Crozier, the commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt. The nuclear-power aircraft carrier with a crew of about 4,800 had been stricken by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus. On March 30, Crozier sent an emotional email pleading for help, which leaked the next day. Two days after that, Modly fired him — generating criticism from former senior military officials, who expressed deep concern about the impact of the precipitous act on morale and on commanders’ willingness to speak out with unwelcome news.

Crozier, who walked alone down the gangplank of his giant ship to the cheers of his crew, is now infected with the virus from which he tried to shield his sailors.

The Roosevelt incident has the ingredients of a morality play at sea: A captain desperate to protect his sailors, who takes actions that his superiors view as a sign of faltering resolve and judgment. Navy leaders worry about protecting the ship, but also about shielding the Navy from an irascible, impulsive commander in chief.

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