USS Roosevelt, Stricken by COVID-19 Outbreak in March, Returns From Deployment – NBC 7 San Diego
A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier sidelined for part of its
deployment in March when more than 1,000 of its sailors tested positive for
COVID-19 will return to San Diego Thursday.
The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt
(CVN 71) has been on deployment for nearly 6 months. More than 6,000 sailors
from Theodore Roosevelt Strike Group
and embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11 deployed from San Diego on Jan. 17 to
the Indo-Pacific to conduct routine operations and maintain security in the region.
The deployment, however, was anything but routine.
In early March, USS
Roosevelt was hit with an outbreak of the novel coronavirus. More than 1,000
sailors on board tested positive for COVID-19 and one
sailor died in what was the most extensive and concentrated spread of the
virus across the U.S. military.
The aircraft
carrier had to pull into Guam ahead of a scheduled port visit so the infected
crew could quarantine. The Navy said half of the crew of 4,800 was moved off ship
to quarantine at various locations in Guam, while enough sailors were kept on
board to keep the ship secure.
The outbreak put the ship out of commission for two months and exploded into one of the biggest military leadership crises of recent years.
The Navy’s top leader accused the fired commander of the coronavirus-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt of being “too naive or too stupid” to be in charge of an aircraft carrier. NBC 7’s military reporter Bridget Naso has more.
Capt. Brett Crozier,
who commanded the Roosevelt, sent an email to several commanders raising alarm that sailors on the ship needed to be quarantined to stop the
spread of the virus. The email was leaked to the media and his
plea for help, begging for faster action to protect the crew, made headlines.
“We are not at
war. Sailors do not need to die,” said Crozier, in a memo obtained by The Associated
Press. “If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most
trusted asset, our sailors.”
In early April, Crozier
was relieved
of his command.
His dismissal
upset the carrier’s crew; when Crozier walked off the ship, the crew cheered
and applauded their former commander.
The captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, who was dismissed by the Navy after sounding the alarm about an outbreak of Covid-19, got a dramatic sendoff from sailors, reports NBC 7’s Melissa Adan.
A new
commanding officer took over USS Roosevelt and the Navy launched
an internal investigation into the spread of the coronavirus aboard the
Roosevelt and the controversial firing of its skipper.
Meanwhile, over the 10 weeks in Guam, sailors recovered and
began boarding USS Roosevelt once more. The crew was able to get back to its
mission on June 4.
In mid-June – in a stunning
reversal – the U.S. Navy upheld
the firing of Crozier, saying the two senior commanders on the
coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier didn’t “do enough, soon enough” to stem
the outbreak.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said Crozier and Crozier’s
boss, Rear Adm. Stuart Baker, made serious errors in judgment as they tried to
work through the outbreak.
The decision to uphold Crozier’s firing was a surprise because
after the initial inquiry into the outbreak aboard USS Roosevelt, Gilday had
recommended the captain be restored to his command.
As the AP reported last month, the pandemic set off a dramatic
series of events for the Navy that led to Crozier’s dismissal, the abrupt resignation of the acting Navy secretary who
fired him, and the push for a broader review of the Pacific fleet’s top
commanders and how they handled the virus outbreak.
Gilday said the deeper
investigation determined the likely source of the COVID-19 outbreak on the Roosevelt
was obtained during a port visit in Vietnam in March.
The investigation determined Crozier and Baker could remain in the Navy and keep their ranks but Gilday said Crozier will not be eligible for command again.
The San Diego-based nuclear aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is preparing to get back to sea following weeks in Guam after more than 1,000 sailors tested positive for COVID-19. NBC7’s military reporter Bridget Naso spoke to the ship’s new commanding officer about getting back to the mission.
The USS Roosevelt’s
experience with the virus spurred the development of widespread cleaning and
health precautions across the military. And it gave federal health authorities
a population of sailors to test, providing greater insight into the science and
the spread of the virus.
In late June, sailor aboard
the Roosevelt took part in voluntary COVID-19 antibody testing.
During its deployment, the Navy
said USS Roosevelt sailed more than 31,835 nautical mules and helped support dual-carrier operations, expeditionary
strike force operations, air defense exercises, and joint-service
interoperability exercises.
USS Bunker Hill and USS Russell – also part of the Roosevelt Strike Group – returned to San Diego Wednesday after a 6-month deployment conducting maritime security operations in the Indo-Pacific region.
