Gen. Milley on Navy removal of aircraft carrier captain over COVID-19 letter
Navy aircraft carrier captain removed after letter pleading for help; reaction from Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Mark Milley.
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Staff Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on “Outnumbred Overtime” on Friday that he supports acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly’s decision to relieve the commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt.
“I trust Secretary Modly in his judgment and I am going to support him,” Milley said, reacting to Thursday’s announcement.
Navy Capt. Brett Crozier, the carrier’s commander, was sacked after he was accused of leaking a letter to the media that went "outside the chain of command" pleading for help after more than 100 sailors on board tested positive for the coronavirus, and nearly 100 others are suspected of contracting the virus.
“It’s his estimation he lost trust and confidence in the ship’s captain,” Milley said. “Secretary Modly is a responsible and accountable official to the American people and he had reason to believe that the captain operated outside the chain of command and he relieved him.”
Modly said he didn't mind Crozier raising concerns, but "it was the way in which he did it." He said it "created panic on the ship" and "misrepresented the facts," adding that Americans back home were "panicked."
The ship, with a crew of nearly 5,000, is docked in Guam, and the Navy has said as many as 3,000 will be taken off the ship and quarantined by Friday. More than 100 sailors on the ship have tested positive for the virus.
Milley told host Harris Faulkner that Modly “thought he [Crozier] operated with poor judgment at a time of crisis and he operated outside the chain of command so he relieved him and we’re going to move on and make sure the sailors of that ship are taken care of and the readiness of the ship is back up to speed and we are going to continue to respond to the needs of the American people for COVID-19.”
When Faulkner asked Milley, who was speaking from FEMA’s command post, if the military can handle COVID-19 and its contagion he said, “Absolutely.”
He explained the measures that are currently in place, citing the USNS Comfort hospital ship, docked in New York City, and the USNS Mercy, which is docked in Los Angeles, to help alleviate some of the load from hospitals in those areas. Currently the two Navy ships, which were deployed at the end of last month, are accepting patients who are not suffering from COVID-19.
Milley said the ships, which have 1,000 beds each, are “fully operational.”
“They’ve got some small amount of patients right now,” he continued. “The intent originally was for them to take the overflow of trauma patients out of the local hospitals so that the local hospitals could focus on the COVID patients. We are reassessing that now and the Secretary of Defense is making a risk assessment to determine whether or not we should take on all the COVID patients to relieve some of the local hospitals.”
He added that in addition to the hospital ships, “We’ve got four field hospitals deployed in New York City, Seattle, Dallas, New Orleans, as well.”
Milley also noted that there are two Expeditionary Medical Facilities (EMFs) in place, and 15 additional U.S. Army field hospitals have been erected.
“We got about 450 doctors and well over 1,000 nurses committed nationwide out of the U.S. Military in support of various civilian communities,” Milley said.
He added that the military is also providing supplies.
“We’ve already provided 5 million masks. We have 5 million more masks en route. We set aside 2,000 ventilators,” Milley continued.
He added that more than 18,000 National Gaurdsmen are “contributing to the fight."
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"We are going to continue to pile on until we have expended all of our resources to protect the American people,” Milley said.
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