US Navy relieves commander of coronavirus-hit ship over memo leak
The United States Navy announced on Thursday that it had relieved the commander of the US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, who wrote a scathing letter that leaked to the public and that asked Navy leadership for stronger measures to control a coronavirus outbreak on board.
Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters new agency earlier on Thursday, said Captain Brett Crozier was being relieved not because he wrote the letter and sent it up through the chain of command, but because the Navy believes he leaked it to the media.
Crozier “demonstrated extremely poor judgement in the middle of a crisis” in writing a letter detailing the problem that was leaked to the US media before top defence officials saw it, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said.
Dr. Li Wenliang, coronavirus whistleblower
More than 100 personnel on the 5,000-person ship have tested positive for the coronavirus so far.
