Modly's statement of April 2, 2020
The CO told my Chief of Staff that he was receiving those resources, and was fully aware of the Navy’s response, only asking that the he wished the crew could be evacuated faster. My Chief of Staff ensured that the CO knew that he had an open line to me to use at any time.
And how would they have handled that invitation to short circuit the chain of command, had Capt. Crozier availed himself of it? The issue here largely appears to be public embarrassment rather than chain of command.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Exclusive-Captain-of-aircraft-carrier-with-15167883.php
At the time, Modly expressed confidence that they identified all the sailors who had been in contact with the trio of infected sailors and they had been quarantined. ...
That was pure public relations bullcrap. Did the trio eat? The mess deck would have been contaminated. Everybody used the mess deck. How did they isolate sailors infected with an airborne illness aboard a ventilated ship? Why did the infection multiply by 50x in a few days? Modly's initial statement was not credible. Obviously, it was afactual. Also, there is no chance whatsoever that Captain Crozier made a port call in Vietnam without RADM Baker and higher ups approving it.
Modly tried to sweep an uncontrollable airborne contamination under the rug.
Crozier's letter, sent as an email, or attachment to an email, appears to be part of what was an official naval letter, or draft of such, with the heading removed, and the prefacing BLUF paragraph (Bottom Line Up Front) added before numbered paragraph 1. I suspect that it was previously an official letter From: Commanding Officer, USS Theodore Roosevelt; To: someone senior to RADM Baker; Via: Commander, Carrier Strike Group 9 (RADM Baker). Such a letter would go from Captain Crozier to RADM Baker for his Endorsement, to be forwarded up the chain of command. If this is what happened, the letter appears to have stopped at RADM Baker, and when the Navy proclaims that RADM Baker had not previously seen the letter, they misleadingly refer to the email version only.
The ship was in port dockside at Guam since March 27. This incident happpened in port, not at sea. Reportedly, more than a thousand sailors went off the ship, but there was a problem finding lodging for the rest. The ship's crew amounts to about 3,200. The attached air wing amounts to about 2,500. The Admiral's staff might number about a few hundred. The Navy announced a goal to get 2,700 sailors off the ship by Friday, but it is Monday and they are behind schedule. Arithmetic suggest who was getting off.
Press releases about sailors being moved off the ship may not have included sailors of the ship's crew, other than those tested as positive. The rest may have been embarked admiral's staff and aviation personnel. If that is what happened, the cheering crew, who gave Captain Crozier a hero's sendoff, would have known who had left and who had been left behind.
There is a very real possibility that Captain Crozier addressed an official letter up the chain of command, and had it blocked, before he went around RADM Baker, he who is almost a non-person in this event. I have not seen a word from the senior officer who was aboard the ship.
A measure of how serious the contamination was may be seen by how long it takes the Navy to get that carrier back out to sea. It has been docked since March 27.
A very civilian and poorly understood analysis of the story. You might want to look at something other than San Fran Nantzi’s pals at the Chronicle. Like Navy Regs, UCMJ and the USNI Proceedings.
“The CO told my chief of Staff”— that would be the Chief of Naval Operations, 4 Star ADM Gilday of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Chief of Staff of the US Navy, who spoke directly to the CO of CVN 71. Hardly a short circuit. Baker to COMPACFLT ADM Aquilino to the CNO, who talked with all 3 before talking directly with Crozier. Public has Zip to do with it— until after the fact— this CO or somebody working for or on their own, concocted this silly letter. Might want to look at former SecNav Spencer, fired by Trump—eager screw up flyboy, who tried to defy a Navy Enquiry Board to override a US President in re a Navy SEAL CWO warfighter’s rank restoration and pension-and his flyboy pal Crozier. Spencer’s holdover staff could easily have screwed with Modly and the CNO for that matter, who couldn’t stand Spencer.
The CNO has the NIS report as of Monday— everything including emails and the leakers who would aid the chicom enemy for personal gain. Bout to get very real for them, in a Brig. Spencer was pals with another USNA flyboy—John McStain, remember? and both democrats in reality.
Very silly to try to parse the chain of command reality from the idiotic poofters at the Chronicle. The, “do ask an doooo tell” eaves droppers.