A U.S. Navy in disarray

The United States Navy is dysfunctional, with a failure of command from the top down. Instead of projecting an image of the most potent fleet in the world, the Navy has run aground in a mire of bad decisions and foolish chest-thumping by civilian and military leaders.

The fate of Capt. Brett Crozier, the former commander of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, displays a disconnect between Navy leadership and sailors. The fate of the crew shows leadership didn't care about the growing COVID-19 spread aboard the ship until the press publicized its plight.

Capt. Crozier deserves an investigation conducted by an independent monitor to determine whether his removal from command was justified.

Officers do not get command of carriers by mistake. Crozier was well-vetted and proven in service before he was given command of the Roosevelt. His crew knew that he was competent and cared about the welfare of his men and women in uniform.

Crozier was frustrated as the virus began to spread among his crew. He went to the chain of command, got little response and then issued an e-mail to other officers warning them of the situation.

That letter was leaked to the press.

Without evidence, then-acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly accused Crozier of leaking the e-mail. Rather than wait for an internal Navy investigation, he removed Crozier from command. As the captain left his ship, his sailors gave him a tremendous ovation while chanting his name. Crozier also left with something else — he was infected with COVID-19.

The former commander, said Modly, was "too naive or too stupid" to command. Those remarks destroyed any confidence most sailors had in the acting secretary and he resigned within days. Defense Secretary Mark Esper did not force Modly to resign, most reports said. He should have.

The evacuation of sailors, which Crozier begged for, had begun by then — but the infections had mounted. Almost 300 of the ship's sailors were testing positive by the time Modly resigned. At least one sailor has died.

If, as some say, Crozier violated communication rules by using a non-encrypted channel for his communications, there was a way to properly resolve that question. That was via the usual internal investigation by naval officers trained for that work.