Navy aircraft carrier captain ousted for raising alarm on COVID-19 received a hero's send-off from sailors

Captain Brett Crozier received a thunderous send-off Friday morning as he exited the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt in Guam. Video taken by sailors on the aircraft carrier show hundreds of service members chanting "Captain Crozier! Captain Crozier!" and clapping as he walked down the gangway.
Crozier was relieved of his duty by Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly after sending a strongly-worded letter to Navy leadership about the spread of COVID-19 on his ship.
He was ousted for sending the letter over "non-secure unclassified email" to a "broad array of people" rather than up the chain of command.
In the letter, Crozier urged Navy leadership to evacuate the vessel as the rate of infection among the sailors increased. "We are not at war, and therefore cannot allow a single Sailor to perish as a result of this pandemic unnecessarily," Crozier wrote.
via U.S. Pacific Fleet / Flickr
As of Wednesday, around 25% of the 4,800-member crew had been tested for COVID-19 and 93 were found to be infected. It's expected that 2700 service members will vacate this ship this week, with a small crew staying on board for maintenance.
The letter was leaked to the media, sparking outrage across the country. Modly says the letter also caused a panic among the sailors on the ship and their families back home.
"I have no doubt in my mind that Captain Crozier did what he thought was in the best interest of the safety and well-being of his crew," Modly said. "Unfortunately, it did the opposite. It unnecessarily raised the alarm of the families of our sailors and Marines with no plans to address those concerns."
"The responsibility for this decision rests with me," Modly added. "I expect no congratulations for it. Captain Crozier is an incredible man."
Crozier will keep his rank and remain in the Navy.
Former Vice President Joe Biden criticized the Navy's acting secretary in a statement saying that he "shot the messenger — a commanding officer who was faithful to both his national security mission and his duty to care for his sailors, and who rightly focused attention on a broader concern about how to maintain military readiness during this pandemic."
Michael Washington shared footage of Crozier's send off where someone is heard saying, "That's how you send out one of the greatest captains you ever had."
Video taken by Taliah Peterkin shows Crozier exiting the ship and giving a final salute.
Footage shared on Twitter by Danny Ocean shows Crozier taking a long walk down the gangway to a cheering crowd chanting his name.
The send off for Captain Brett Crozier who was relieved from duty for TRYING TO SAVE THE LIVES OF HIS CREW pic.twitter.com/EEDG1U3rYE
— Danny Ocean (@The_UnSilent_) April 3, 2020
The footage of Crozier exiting the ship is a beautiful display of sailors cheering the man who sacrificed his career to protect not only their lives, but the health of everyone they would encounter. Even though he's no longer captain of the U.S.S. Roosevelt, there's no doubt his heroism will be long remembered by his former crew and the country he proudly serves.
- How to prepare for extended school closings—and not lose your mind ›
- 17-year-old builds a website to closely track the Coronavirus ... ›
- Nearly 200,000 sign petition demanding TV networks stop airing ... ›
- Dyson designed a coronavirus-specific ventilator in just 10 days and ... ›
Men try to read the most disturbing comments women get online back to them.
If you wouldn't say it to their faces, don't type it.
This isn’t comfortable to talk about.
Trigger warning for discussion of sexual assault and violence.
in 2016, a video by Just Not Sports took two prominent female sportswriters and had regular guys* read the awful abuse they receive online aloud.
Sportswriters Sarah Spain and Julie DiCaro sat by as men read some of the most vile tweets they receive on a daily basis. See how long you can last watching it.
*(Note: The men reading them did not write these comments; they're just being helpful volunteers to prove a point.)
It starts out kind of jokey but eventually devolves into messages like this:
Awful.
All images and GIFs from Just Not Sports/YouTube.
These types of messages come in response to one thing: The women were doing their jobs.
Those wishes that DiCaro would die by hockey stick and get raped? Those were the result of her simply reporting on the National Hockey League's most disturbing ordeal: the Patrick Kane rape case, in which one of the league's top players was accused of rape.
DiCaro wasn't writing opinion pieces. She was simply reporting things like what the police said, statements from lawyers, and just general everyday work reporters do. In response, she received a deluge of death threats. Her male colleagues didn't receive nearly the same amount of abuse.
It got to the point where she and her employer thought it best for her to stay home for a day or two for her own physical safety.
The men in the video seemed absolutely shocked that real live human beings would attack someone simply for doing their job.
Not saying it.
All images and GIFs from Just Not Sports/YouTube.
Most found themselves speechless or, at very least, struggling to read the words being presented.
It evoked shame and sympathy.
All images and GIFs from Just Not Sports/YouTube.
Think this is all just anecdotal? There's evidence to the contrary.
The Guardian did a study to find out how bad this problem really is. They combed through more than 70 million comments that have been posted on their site since 2006 and counted the number of comments that violated their comment policy and were blocked.
The stats were staggering.
From their comprehensive and disturbing article:
If you can’t say it to their face... don’t type it.
All images and GIFs from Just Not Sports/YouTube.
So, what can people do about this kind of harassment once they know it exists?
There are no easy answers. But the more people who know this behavior exists, the more people there will be to tell others it's not OK to talk to anyone like that.
Watch the whole video below:
.This article originally appeared nine years ago.