The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Teddy Roosevelt sailors was at the center of a controversy that led to the Tuesday resignation of Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly.
Modly dismissed the aircraft carrier’s captain Brett Crozier, after the leak of a memo in which he implored Navy officials to urgently evacuate the ship to protect the health of its sailors.
Modly then flew to Guam and delivered remarks to the sailors slamming Crozier as “stupid” for not understanding the memo would leak to the media and suggesting the captain had done the leaking himself. Modly’s trip to Guam cost the Defense Department an estimated $243,000, according to a Navy official.
The sailor was found unconscious on March 30 and has been admitted to the intensive care unit of the US Navy Hospital on Guam, the Navy said in a statement on Thursday.
As of Wednesday, 97% of the Theodore Roosevelt’s crew have been tested for the virus and 416 sailors have tested positive, according to the Navy.
Nearly a week after Modly fired Crozier, the Navy has only evacuated 2,329 of the aircraft carrier’s nearly 4,800 sailors.
The Navy initially said that it had intended to move 2,700 sailors ashore by April 3. Officials say the process has been slowed due to testing as the government of Guam is requiring that sailors test negative before they can be moved into hotels on the island.
source: cnn.com