His answer from the higher-ups was a public statement by SecNav (acting) and CNO to continue the missions without interruption.
A Nimitz-Class carrier is a giant metal can with a single ventilation system. It was a matter of only a very short time before his 7,000 officers and men were enveloped - and not combat-capable - while stranded at sea. You saw what happened to the last set of Guinea Pigs on the Princess cruise in a similar and smaller enclosed environment.
He chose to save his troops by going public, knowing that his very promising career was lost at that point.
Now two points: those are our troops, our sons and daughters - very highly trained, and often the only real thing their families have. Second, if the navy is so concerned with saving face, why are we putting up with it? It's our navy - not the CNO's of the Secretary of the Navy's or Defense or even our President's. It belongs to we, the people. I thought that all of us Freepers were tired of the secretive, career-chasing, Obama-era wimps that had gotten hold of our nation's leadership.
We finally get a commander who risks everything for his troops and all we can see is criticism? We need to tell our President to reinstate (and promote) Captain Crozier at once!
It's a little more sophisticated than that, but if you say so...
Would that be the very promising career where he’s already been passed over twice for promotion? And he had to make a port call in Vietnam, he did not have to authorize liberty call.