
Navy sacks carrier captain, pulls another carrier off station over Covid-19 - tartoran
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/32871/navy-sacks-carrier-captain-pulls-another-carrier-off-station-over-covid-19-concerns
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joshstrange
So maybe I'm reading this wrong but it looks like Captain Brett Crozier fell
on his sword to save his men and "Acting" US Navy Secretary Thomas Modly is
just silencing anyone who makes the administration look bad.

~~~
united893
You got it wrong. Leaking this was bad opsec and weakens the Navy.

China's been using this opportunity to seize up territorial claims in the
South China Sea

> [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/world/asia/Indonesia-
> sout...](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/world/asia/Indonesia-south-
> china-sea-fishing.html)

~~~
toomuchtodo
The Navy was already weakened if the vessel had hundreds of cases without
sufficient support. Let’s not blame the victim for yet another executive
branch failure to act without the appropriate speed and magnitude.

If the chain of command fails you, you have no other choice but to go public
when your crews’ well-being is threatened.

> “It creates the perception the Navy is not on the job; the government is not
> on the job. That's just not true."

I don’t believe anyone is confident the government is on the job, and this
letter did nothing to change that perception. It simply confirms what the
public already believes.

~~~
nomel
> without sufficient support.

Do you have a reference for this? The letter [1] doesn't appear to mention
insufficient support, just that the cases were accelerating.

[1] Letter: [https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Exclusive-
Captai...](https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Exclusive-Captain-of-
aircraft-carrier-with-15167883.php)

~~~
ratsmack
It looks to me like the captain made some poor judgement in addressing this by
side stepping the chain of command.

~~~
toomuchtodo
It looks like public opinion backs his judgement.

[https://www.stripes.com/news/us/captain-crozier-captain-
croz...](https://www.stripes.com/news/us/captain-crozier-captain-crozier-
videos-show-sailors-sending-off-ousted-uss-roosevelt-commander-with-
cheers-1.624732)

------
smitty1e
Navy vet here.

YOU DO NOT expose the readiness of the unit, medical or otherwise.

This was akin to putting private keys in the git repository.

~~~
MrOwen
As another commenter mentioned here, sailors usually have family and/or
relatives that they call in addition to myriad other ways of communicating to
the outside world. There is no way that a breakout of COVID-19 could remain a
secret. What are sick sailors going to tell their families? And how would you
prevent a news investigation from talking to those sailor's families and
putting together 2 + 2?

~~~
smitty1e
When one enlists or takes a commission, one falls under the UCMJ[1]. One's 1A
rights are constrained. Aside: this feeds the distaste of veterans for the
authoritarian leanings of so many public figures.

Among the things sailors are ordered NOT to do is talk to the media without
running the communications by a Public Affairs Officer. There is also regular
OpSec[2] training.

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Code_of_Military_Jus...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Code_of_Military_Justice)

[2]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operations_security](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operations_security)

------
ezVoodoo
Now the US version of coronavirus Whistle Blower has been punished and
silenced.

------
lawrenceyan
Original article on the topic posted here:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22765355](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22765355)

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ghufran_syed
Why this level of concern about probably _the_ most healthy population that
will ever be exposed to the illness? Mostly young, in superb physical
condition. The safest thing for them _and_ the community is to keep them on
the ship until the disease has worked its way through the shipboard population
until they're no longer a risk to their families or the wider community.

~~~
fzeroracer
Because this line of logic is nonsense for two different reasons.

First with how fast the coronavirus spreads and can last, this means
essentially taking down the entire ship. Having an entire crew range from
bedridden to slightly sick is not a good thing for opsec.

Second, the coronavirus is not just deadly to the unhealthy or the elderly.
Even younger people can require ventilators or die as a result. You would be
condemning those people to death.

~~~
ghufran_syed
I’m an ER physician treating patients daily, including COVID patients, so I
have some experience and knowledge of the relevant pathology, and am exposed
to the virus on a daily basis. I also have a lot of friends with experience of
military medicine who agree with my position. There is no ‘opsec’ issue here,
but there is a potential issue of operational _readiness_ \- but it’s hard to
suggest that operational readiness is _improved_ by standing down the entire
crew of the vessel.

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HumblyTossed
Don't embarrass the Navy or the Commander in Chief.

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nradov
More details: [https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/32871/navy-sacks-
carri...](https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/32871/navy-sacks-carrier-
captain-pulls-another-carrier-off-station-over-covid-19-concerns)

~~~
tomohawk
This story has much more information and context.

~~~
dang
OK, we changed to that from [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-
canada-52145230](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52145230).

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aaron695
If he leaked it he should be sacked.

There will be a increase in wars over the next few years. The age of wars
decreasing is on hold.

There is military action that might be needed at the moment. This is not a
joke. We don't need skirmishes kicking off.

~~~
fzeroracer
Okay, question: Do you think navy ships are black boxes? That zero information
gets in and out? Because despite what you may think, sailors do call family
and friends.

You're not going to keep the virus a secret on any ship. The solution is to
try and get over it as soon as possible. Not act like it doesn't exist.

~~~
aaron695
> Do you think navy ships are black boxes?

This is a silly point.

A Captain leaking a letter, is different to a country X trawling through
thousands of accounts on social media for the truth.

At your point there would have been no point any high Chinese official calling
alarm in January about the Coronavirus, we already know because China isn't a
black box and people were seeing what happened so we all knew exactly what was
happening in China.

> You're not going to keep the virus a secret on any ship.

Everyone knows the virus is on all ships (and many submarines) around the
world. This was a Captain _allegedly_ writing up exact intel and undermining
his command structure.

