Potrait of Brett Crozier, former commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier. (Credit: U.S. Navy)
WASHINGTON, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Brett Crozier, who was relieved of command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier for revealing a spread of coronavirus on the warship, has tested positive for COVID-19, New York Times reported, quoting Crozier's family and Naval Academy classmates.
"He led a top navy ship. Now he sits in quarantine, fired and infected," the paper reported. On Sunday, Captain Crozier was in quarantine in Guam, the American territory in the Pacific, dealing with a dry, raspy cough, said people who know him.
Crozier wrote a letter to plead U.S. Navy for help in evacuating thousands of sailors on the ship amid accelerating spread of the virus aboard on March 30. He was relieved of command on April 2.
A U.S. serviceman delivers food to hotel rooms designated for sailors of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, who are quaratined in hotels in Guam, on April 5, 2020. (Credit: U.S. Navy)
"It creates the perception that the Navy is not on the job, the government's not on the job," Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly explained why he relieved Crozier of his command.
U.S. President Donald Trump supported firing of Crozier, saying he shouldn't have let sailors get off in Vietnam and get infected. More importantly, it was "inappropriate" of him to write a five-page letter (reports say four-page) which is "all over the place."
A video that has gone viral on social media shows hundreds of sailors seeing him off, chanting Captain Crozier. With Crozier's infection, those sailors are also under high risk.■
