April 13, 2020
How Donald Trump Ruined the Navy
No communications firm, pressed to design a case study on public-relations disasters, could likely top the Navy’s recent bungling of a coronavirus epidemic on the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the firing of the aircraft carrier’s outspoken commander, Captain Brett Crozier. Crozier gained fame for his three-and-a-half-page memo pleading for the service to evacuate its crew from the ship, where safe isolation of the crew was impossible. His civilian boss, then-acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, gained notoriety for relieving Crozier of command, making an ill-advised quarter-million-dollar trip to board the Roosevelt dockside in Guam, trashing Crozier to his crew as “too naïve or too stupid to be a commanding officer,” and ultimately resigning his own post amid the backlash.
As the number of infected sailors among the Roosevelt’s crew rose this weekend past 550, a majority of the blame for the saga’s most ridiculous moments continues to fall on Modly. But this crisis was ultimately not of his own making. He merely brought to light the deepening dysfunction within the Department of Defense brought about by collapsing norms of civil-military relations.
Read the full article in The New Republic.
More from CNAS
-
Comparing VA and Non-VA Medical Centers
Reports
Introduction Implementation of the Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Outside Networks (MISSION) Act of 2018 is anticipated to result in expanded access...
By Jill Inderstrodt & Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth
-
Kayla M. Williams Appears on DODReads Podcast
Podcast
In Episode 6 former Army Arabic Linguist Kayla Williams of the Center for a New American Security talks women in war, her own writing, and how to stay connected to service aft...
By Kayla M. Williams
-
Benefits for Survivors and Dependents
Commentary
In the post-9/11 era, a “sea of goodwill” made up of organizations in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors has formed to support veterans, service members, their familie...
By Zachary Jaynes
-
What the COVID-19 pandemic reveals about the US military's role in defending the nation
Commentary
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a stark reminder that America’s defense requires more than the Department of Defense. This was awkwardly clear earlier this month,...
By Lt Col Stewart Parker
