Captain Crozier!

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JayFramer

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A man of the people, putting his shipmates before himself:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxDkffIKzCs&app=desktop[/ame]

Clearly, the sailors aboard his former vessel loved him and appreciated what they did for their health and well-being. As someone who has been under several bad commands I can tell you the respect these sailors are showing is not something easily earned.

Farewell Captain Crozier! You will be remembered in the hearts of many!

-Jay
 
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Crozier and his Boss the Rear Admiral lived a couple of doors away from each other on the TR. They must have had a terrible personality conflict for Crozier to violate the most basic concepts of Operational Security.

I think there will be more fallout from this episode. The Rear Admiral might find his head on the chopping block too. I'd be surprised if a couple of demotions and forced retirements aren't on the table.
 
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Czechvar said:
Crozier and his Boss the Rear Admiral lived a couple of doors away from each other on the TR. They must have had a terrible personality conflict for Crozier to violate the most basic concepts of Operational Security.

I think there will be more fallout from this episode. The Rear Admiral might find his head on the chopping block too. I'd be surprised if a couple of demotions and forced retirements aren't on the table.
Click to expand...

Indeed. Much as I sympathize with the captain's wish to protect his crew, his breaches of OPSEC just won't fly in the military post Snowden and Manning.
 
A question for you old salts-
Isn't a Captain kind of a low rank to command a carrier? I thought carrier commanders always had a star or two.
And yes, I know a Capt in the Navy is an O-6, the equivalent of a Colonel in the Army.
 
handejector said:
A question for you old salts-
Isn't a Captain kind of a low rank to command a carrier? I thought carrier commanders always had a star or two.
And yes, I know a Capt in the Navy is an O-6, the equivalent of a Colonel in the Army.
Click to expand...

I'm not an old salt, but I know this for different reasons.

All carriers are commanded by Captains. Flag officers are not as a rule used for any single-ship command; they may be embarked on carriers, but as group commanders.

Captains in the Navy can functionally hold significant command responsibilities which may exceed what an Army Colonel would be expected to do. As an example (I'm keeping this vague, although I think it's largely public information now), a former college roommate of mine served 30 years as a career Navy officer. Once promoted Captain, he served as the Commodore of a Naval Special Warfare Group, and then as the Deputy Commander of US SOCOM for an entire continent, as No. 2 to a Major General. He retired as Captain.
 
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yaktamer said:
Before or after Lionel Richie went solo?
Click to expand...

Good one :D

I was surprised when I read the announcement of his appointment; I'd only heard the term used in naval novels about the Napoleonic Wars and such.

But the US Navy apparently uses Commodore not as a rank, but as a function description, instead of Commanding Officer, which may be a bit long and not sound as charmingly nautical ;)
 
STCM(SW) said:
"All carriers are commanded by Captains. Flag officers are not as a rule used for any single-ship command; they may be embarked on carriers, but as group commanders."
That is a fact. And a Navy Captain may be in charged of a destroyer squadron as Commodore.
Click to expand...

Not only that, but depending on the vessel, a ship's captain (which in most cases is a billet) may be a Commander (Lt. Col), Lt. Commander (Major) or even a Lieutenant (Captain). IIRC capital ships (carriers, boomers, battleships) are usually full bird Captains (we even had an XO on one ship that was a full bird captain)
 
In the USN there are two Rear Admiral ranks, though both wear the same sleeve markings. RA Lower-half which is a one star or Brigadier General in the Army (O-7) or RA upper half (O-8). In the RN, however, the rank of Commodore is a single star, one broad band on the sleeve and is equivalent to a Brigadier in the Army or an Air Commodore in the RAF. Other European services use much the same system as the UK. At times, a "Captain" not necessarily an O-6 may be appointed as "Commodore of a group of vessels." Dave_n
 
From here, it looks like he absolutely did the right thing, just not the correct thing as prescribed by the Navy. Reading between the lines, it looks as though he wasn't getting any response by going through channels. That might not be the case, but If he reasonably saw it as a matter of life or death, with time being of the essence, then he did the right thing from a moral standpoint, at least.

Presumably he was aware of the consequences for his career, which he will have to accept in any event If there were any political considerations behind the Navy's apparent foot-dragging, then I would root for him even more strongly.
 
Disappointed in a lot of the answers on here, seems to show too many officers care little for the men, dispite all the hoorah about supporting our troops which clearly, they do not. Custer was at odds with most of his officers & men, look where it got him.
 
ol777gunnerz said:
Disappointed in a lot of the answers on here, seems to show too many officers care little for the men, dispite all the hoorah about supporting our troops which clearly, they do not. Custer was at odds with most of his officers & men, look where it got him.
Click to expand...

I doubt any will know Croziers name a 140 years later!
 
NYlakesider said:
I doubt any will know Croziers name a 140 years later!
Click to expand...

Probably not. But in the shorter timeframe, he still came out the hero in the public mind. The reports out of D.C. are pretty clear by now that this was a political decision overriding the top brass. The inept way in which the Pentagon handled this (however formally justified) is going to make sure Crozier will be remembered as "the captain who sacrificed his career out of concern for his men". Those videos of the crew cheering him aren't going away. Certainly better than losing your command because your ship rams a tanker while you're asleep.
 
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I just read that Captain Crozier has tested positive for Covid 19 himself on the New York Times. I didn't get to read through the whole article before they blanked me out and wanted me to make an account, which I refuse to do. So I won't link to the article, but you can google it yourself with "Captain Crozier Covid 19" and it will be one of the first links the search will bring up.

I hope you pull through this disease OK, Captain Crozier.
 
I found another site, the Military Times, that has thie story about Captain Crozier having tested positive for Covid 19.

Here is the link to the Military Times for you all.

<<<LINK>>>
 
From the NYT:

Navy Captain Removed From Carrier Tests Positive for Covid-19
Captain Crozier was fired after a leak of a letter he had emailed to Navy leaders detailing the service's failures in dealing with a coronavirus outbreak on the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt.


By John Ismay
April 5, 2020
Updated 1:01 p.m. ET

Capt. Brett E. Crozier, the Navy captain who was removed from command of the coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, has tested positive for Covid-19, according to two Naval Academy classmates of Crozier's who are close to him and his family.

A Navy spokesman declined to comment on Crozier's Covid status.

The commander began exhibiting symptoms before he was removed from the warship on Thursday, two of his classmates said. Crozier was fired following a leak to The San Francisco Chronicle of a letter he had emailed to Navy leaders that detailed the failures on the service's part to provide the necessary resources to swiftly move sailors off the carrier and disinfect areas on board as the virus spread through the ship.

Thomas B. Modly, the acting secretary of the Navy, said he had lost confidence in Crozier's ability to command the ship effectively as it dealt with the evolving crisis after Crozier sent the letter on an unclassified email system to 20 to 30 people. Sending such a letter, Modly said, caused unnecessary alarm about the operational readiness of the ship and undermined the chain of command. "In sending it out pretty broadly, he did not take care to ensure that it couldn't be leaked," Modly said. "And that's part of his responsibility."

In a briefing Saturday, President Trump offered support for Modly's decision. "He shouldn't be talking that way in a letter," the president said of Crozier. "I thought it was terrible what he did."

Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that there were 155 confirmed cases of Covid-19 among sailors aboard the aircraft carrier, and that more than half of the ship had been tested. So far there have been no hospitalizations.
 
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