A recording leaked Monday of Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly allegedly addressing sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
The TR's captain, Brett Crozier, was relieved from duty last week after a letter he sent about his concerns for the safety of the sailors on board amid a coronavirus outbreak was also leaked.
Audio courtesy of Task and Purpose.
"If he didn't think, in my opinion, that this information wasn't going to get out to the public, in this day and information age that we live in, then he was either A, too naïve or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this," Modly said in the now well-circulated recording.
Crozier wrote a letter to the United States Navy — allegedly leapfrogging several levels of the chain of command — asking for help to prevent sailor deaths because of the spreading coronavirus on board. The letter was originally leaked to the San Fransico Chronicle. Navy leadership, including Modly, have admitted they don't know if Crozier was involved in leaking the letter and said that they will never truly be able to identify who originally leaked it.
The letter described the quickly worsening situation on board the Navy vessel as more and more crewmembers fell victim to COVID-19. It requested immediate help, the evacuation of almost all of the crew, and any assistance the Department of the Navy could provide.
Shortly after the letter surfaced, Crozier was relieved of duty. He has since tested positive for COVID-19.
Captain of USS Theodore Roosevelt who pleaded for coronavirus help relieved of duty
At the time of his dismissal on April 2, Modly called Crozier an "honorable man" despite what he characterized as a lapse in judgment, adding that he had ordered a review "of the climate" throughout the Navy's Pacific fleet.
Opinion: Crozier's firing reveals a deep divide between troops and the Pentagon
Now, Modly seems to have changed his tune.
His remarks to the crew aboard the TR explain that Crozier "betrayed" him and caused a "big controversy in Washington, D.C."
“So think about that when you cheer the man of the ship who exposed you to that,” Moldy said, referencing social media videos from the previous week of the TR's crew gathering to cheer the captain as he departed the vessel. “I understand you love the guy. It's good that you love him. But you're not required to love him.”
Members of Modly's audience — purportedly the crew aboard the USS TR — can be heard voicing their own opinions throughout the recording. Notably, immediately following Modly's comment referring to Crozier as "stupid," one person, can be clearly heard asking, "What the f----?"
Modly lamented to the crew that both he and his family have faced "hatred and pure evil" as a result of his decision to dismiss Crozier. Members of Congress including former Navy commander Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., as well as former Vice President Joe Biden are calling for him to be fired, saying his decision was criminal.
"I assure you that it was not," Modly said regarding the criminality of his decision. "Because I understand the facts and those facts show that what your captain did was very, very wrong in a moment when we expected him to be the calming force on a turbulent sea."
Requests for comment submitted to Modly's public affairs team were unanswered at the time of this article's publication.
—
Want to get more connected to the stories and resources Connecting Vets has to offer? Click here to sign up for our weekly newsletter.
