The Navy hasn't ruled out possibly reinstating captain fired over coronavirus outbreak on aircraft carrier
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The US Navy has not ruled out reinstating Capt. Brett Crozier, former commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt who was fired for his handling of a coronavirus outbreak, according to the service's top officer.
Adm. Michael Gilday, the chief of naval operations, told the Associated Press he hadn't decided against reinstating Crozier. "I am taking no options off the table," Gilday said.Crozier was relieved of command on April 2, days after he emailed a four-page letter to at least 20 people, warning about a coronavirus outbreak aboard his ship.
The letter was eventually leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle, which published its contents on March 31. It was not immediately clear how the letter was leaked, but Navy leaders say they recently completed its investigation into the matter.
Modly later traveled to Guam, where the USS Theodore Roosevelt is currently in port, to address the ship's roughly 4,800 crew members. Modly's 15-minute profanity-laced speech about Crozier's actions was later leaked and widely criticized by former Navy leaders, the ship's crew, and lawmakers.
Modly apologized for his remarks and resigned on Tuesday.
Reinstating Crozier would likely be an unprecedented move by the Navy. Previous Navy commanding officers have had their firings expunged from their service records, but reinstatement to command a ship has rarely, if ever, taken place. An online petition seeking to "reward" the captain for "asking for help regarding the safety of his crew" had more than 315,000 signatures as of Thursday.More than 2,300 of the carrier's crew members have been evacuated, and many of them are under quarantine in hotels on Guam. About 416 of the crew had tested positive for the coronavirus as of Thursday.
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