Hundreds of sailors gathered on the deck of the Roosevelt on Thursday night to bid farewell to Captain Brett Crozier, cheering him and chanting his name as he walked off the ship. They showed no sign of concern that doing so might expose them to the coronavirus - which started the entire drama to begin with.
"I've never seen anything quite like it," said Erik Slavin, writer for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, sharing a Facebook video of Crozier's sendoff from inside the Roosevelt's hangar bay.
Another video shows Crozier walking the gangplank onto the pier, as the crew gathers above chanting his name and clapping.
It wasn't just the crew of the Roosevelt that cheered Crozier on, however - their videos were quickly pressed into service by the gallery of Trump critics on social media, who sought to blame Crozier's sacking on the president they love to hate.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-California) said he demanded an internal investigation into the firing of Crozier for "blowing the whistle" on coronavirus conditions on board the Roosevelt.
"We punish people for speaking out like a dictatorship," complained Dr. Eugene Gu, who obsessively responds to every Trump tweet.
"Shameful" and "outrageous," said anti-Trump CNN pundit Ana Navarro.
Comment: Where were all these people when Edward Snowden and Julian Assange were labeled as traitors for blowing the whistle? The media only cares when it suits their agenda
There were many, many other examples, from the rank-and-file Twitter #Resisters to well-known mainstream pundits, all saying the same thing.
One particular argument brought up by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-California) - and many others - was that Trump allowed the firing of Crozier but stood up for Navy SEAL Chief Eddie Gallagher, who was accused of war crimes.
The Gallagher parallel was also invoked by OANN journalist Jack Posobiec, a Navy veteran who is usually pro-Trump but in this case seemed in Crozier's corner.
Crozier's name first became public knowledge last week, when he wrote an impassioned plea to the Navy to send his ship back to Guam and allow him to quarantine the crew, as Covid-19 spread rapidly on board in conditions where 'social distancing' was impossible. The letter was published by the San Francisco Chronicle.
The day before, the Pentagon had decided to stop reporting the details of Covid-19 infections in particular branches of service, commands and bases, citing operational security.
Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly agreed that while Crozier cared for the lives and well-being of his crew, instead of talking to his commanding admiral "right down the passageway," the captain chose to send a letter via unsecure email, outside the chain of command, and to the general public, which "made his sailors, their families, and many in the public believe that his letter was the only reason help from our larger Navy family was forthcoming, which was hardly the case."
Asked about Crozier on Thursday, Trump disagreed that the captain's firing was punishment for seeking to protect his crew.
The Roosevelt was recalled to Guam from its deployment in the South China Sea last week, and its crew is undergoing tests for the virus and will be quarantined in hotels on shore.
Reader Comments
astute observation as always.
/s.
(sarcasm)
A naval captain sent a letter somewhere? And that was bad because he was blowing a whistle? I expect a bit more substance from RT.
Anyway, the question I have is this: "Was the ship was actually full of sick and dying men, or was it full of hysterical idiots in perfect health who were convinced that the sky was falling, any time now..."
Seems like an important detail to leave out.
Stricken? His whole ship? Gosh! That sounds serious!
"[...] a COVID-19 outbreak was detected among its crew."
'Detected'? Well, hold on now. That's a.., smallish sort of word. You detect things with sensitive equipment and scanning devices. I thought they said the ship was stricken. Hmm... What else do they say..?
"A day after the letter was published, around 1,000 sailors were removed from the Theodore Roosevelt. A total of 114 crew have since tested positive for COVID-19. "
Okay.., so they tested positive?
Pardon me, but if you have to swab your nose and send it off to have a lab tech confirm that you're actually sick, then how sick are you, really? Do you have more than the sniffles? Isn't the Corona Virus supposed to be leaving people dying if they can't get to a respirator in time?
How many people on that boat were actually even ill?
What is going on here?