Bringing up the question of “Why not?”


https://www.nap.edu/read/11034/chapter/7

https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Portals/...BRD/CBRD02.pdf

https://www.jcs.mil/Portals/36/Docum...-07-091639-697

think it comes down to: he was doing what he thought was best for his guys

Undoubtedly true, but not the mission. See below:

https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-...944/samar.html

https://www.history.navy.mil/researc...vo-island.html

No doubt the Captain's decision is a potential "case study" for future leaders

People, or The Mission? I've heard it both ways while in the service. If someone is injured, but you can complete the mission by sacrificing them, do you do it, or do you "never leave a man behind"? These are opposites in some situations.

Not a particularly difficult one. Healthy young active duty troops DO NOT have a particularly high case fatality rate. As of four days ago - for all of the DOD - it was one older National Guard Physicians assistant who got coronavirus treating civilian patients in an ER in New Jersey, two civilian contract workers, and an active duty spouse. All military personnel are continuously screened and medically retired if they develop significant pre-existing conditions such as COPD, Diabetes, Hepatitis C, and other conditions that can lead to bad outcomes if they were to get coronavirus infections and even before that are screened at enlistment/commissioning to eliminate people with severe asthma, cystic fibrosis, and other risk factors.

additionally, have you ever been on Guam? It is no medical Mecca on the civilian side and has only a small Naval hospital. Seriously ill active duty patients are shipped off to Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii which could have been done off the carrier itself by fixed wing aircraft. Alternatively the ship’s rotary wing assets might have helicoptered seriously ill patients to Andersen AFB for transshipment from there.


of course the interesting thing is that everything was ALREADY in motion before the four page memo was shotgunned out. Guam has about 150,000 civilian residents so coordination was necessary with the governor to assure that the significantly more vulnerable civilian residents - who are also American citizens - were not put at risk by billeting 3000 sailors in civilian areas, since there was no room for that many on the military bases.

lastly, have you ever tried to arrange billeting and messing for 3000 personnel? In quarantine? On Guam? Anyone believing that could be done quickly is ... uninformed. They might try reading this:

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/...7c1c2d16c.html

News reporting tonight that Capt Crozier has tested positive for COVID-19.

Hi career mission (as both a fighter/attack guy and later a big-deck XO/CO) was power-projection and war-at-sea.

Ever tried to run a nuclear-powered ship, to say nothing of a carrier? The guy had enough on his plate to start with, trust me.

Nope.

But I've been on a staff like he had working for him. Perhaps one of them let him down and that will come out in the investigation, but regardless I think the outcome was bad enough that his career as a CVN CC is done.

Not denigrating the guy personally at all, or failing to understand all the issues he had to deal with. For that matter, he has corona virus himself and HE is old enough that it IS a nontrivial threat to him. Perhaps having it himself even affected his own decision making in this debacle, some people do get mental effects with it:

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/928157

But the Navy isn't going to forgive and forget. I know that and you know that.

Done for sure, you only get one shot at that and it's usually a flag gateway if it goes well.


Yes, this is exactly what I was thinking too but obviously don't have all the info. It would explain the non-sequitur of his actions.