Captain My Captain(Billy Sample) Teddy Roosevelt's great-grandson weighs in on dismissal of Navy captain:
'Crozier is a hero'

The Captain of the Air Craft Carrier Theodore Roosevelt was relieved of his Command for a leaked letter he sent asking for advice and pleading for permission to relieve his crew, dozens of whom tested positive for COVID-19. He was relieved on a Thursday. After Crozier’s letter leaked, Navy officials announced they would offload 2,700 sailors by Friday. As the Captain was leaving the Ship the Crew spontaneously assembled on the decks and chanted his name and gave him what I would call a hero’s ovation.

I’m not here to pass judgement on whether what he did or the consequences were appropriate. That’s out of “My Pay Grade” as we say. However, I will state that in my time as a Sailor I served on 6 Ships and 3 Shore Commands not counting Boot Camp. I served under at least 14 Commanders. I know what a good Commander or Captain is. I’d say maybe 6 of those would have received the same kind of honors that Captain Crozier received. I’m not implying that the rest of them were bad I’m just saying their departure received a celebration, just not in the same way.

No one loves the Navy any more than I do but I also know that the U.S. Navy sometimes tend to spin and even cover up incidences that they feel could be embarrassing. I know of two examples of this. One of them I witnessed personally and one the whole country witnessed.

First incident is the one I witnessed. USS John Paul Jones, 1982. The ship was tired, worn out and virtually outdated. It was built in 1954 and we had just returned from a very stressful 6-month deployment that included almost 3 months of continuous steaming in the Persian Gulf Region. We got a new Captain as soon as we returned. The Captain we saluted during the cruise was Top Notch. We loved the guy. The Captain we had in 1982 was trying so hard to make a name for himself and sometimes at the expense of the crew. The Navy was getting close to giving up on us and we basically had maybe one more chance to make it.
We pulled out of San Diego and set a course for San Francisco. We had several civilian riders on board who were to evaluate the condition of the ship and make recommendations. Not long after we set sail, we encountered a severe storm that caused high seas and plunging temperatures. One of our riders was an elderly gentleman who became severely ill. So ill that the Corpsman on board begin to fear for the man’s life.

It was the middle of the night, we’re no where near a port so we radioed the Coast Guard and arranged a rendezvous in the coastal area of Malibu. Around 2300 hours (11 pm) we arrived at almost the exact time the Coast Guard Cutter did. The Seas were so high that we immediately encountered issues with mooring the two vessels. Well our wonderful Captain grew impatient and left the Bridge for the Fantail. He told one of the Boatswain Mates to get out of the way and then he grabbed the mooring line. The timing was terrible in that the Cutter had just decided to approach us from the other side of the ship. They were pulling away and subsequently pulled the Captain overboard! One of the Coast Guard crew dove into the sea to assist the Captain. It took us a good 30 minutes to fish both men from the water. Once we got them back on board we then once again went from man over board status to transfer mode. It was at least an hour before the Cutter departed from us and headed back to the shore.

We were informed later that the elderly ship rider passed away before they could get him to the shore. The scuttle around the ship was if we hadn’t had to take the time to fish the Captain out of the water. Would the man have survived?

We pulled in to San Francisco and there were two government cars waiting on the pier. The Captain was sporting a broken nose where his binoculars had flown up and smacked him in the face when he fell and also a dislocated shoulder from the force of the line he was holding, was escorted into one of the vehicles. As they drove away, we were all thinking that maybe, just maybe that’s the last we would see of Captain ‘Chaos’!

Didn’t happen, in fact the next day he was back on board and with the exception of his bandaged face and arm in a sling it was as if nothing happened. Sea trials were called off and we immediately returned to San Diego. Within 6 months the ship was decommissioned.

About 2 weeks later in the newspaper “Navy Times”, buried on like page 6 was an article about the John Paul Jones experiencing an incident and how the Captain had dived in to the water to aid in the rescue of a Coast Guard Seaman who had fallen overboard in high seas!?!? Seriously! The Captain was a Hero and we all had no Idea!?

Second incident is the one the whole country witnessed. In the early and mid 1980’s the Navy was on a mission to man a 600-ship fleet. Consequently, it was decided to bring several World War II Battle Ships out of ‘moth balls’ and refurbish them to the modern Navy standards. This was a bad idea from the get go. Super expensive and time consuming. It would have probably been more cost effective to have just built new ships but in reality, this was a bit of a publicity stunt. Heck the New Jersey was dry docked just down the pier from my ship and I even considered putting in for a transfer. I figured that being a crew member on a Battle Ship would look pretty good on my record! I was getting close to shore duty assignment so dismissed the ideal.

After much pomp and ceremony, the ships did end up in the active fleet. On April 19th, 1989 on board the Battle Ship Iowa the proof of this being a bad idea was painfully validated. During live fire training one of the gun turrets exploded and killed 47 American Sailors.

Of course, the Navy began a detailed investigation and eventually determined that it was a Murder Suicide by one of the members of the Gun Crew and that he was a homosexual. Now let me repeat that, IT WAS DETERMINED THAT IS WAS A MURDER SUICIDE BY ONE OF THE GUN CREW MEMBERS AND THAT HE WAS A HOMOSEXUAL.

So how did they arrive at that conclusion? It was discovered that one of the young men who died had taken out a $100,000 dollar life insurance policy and another crew member that he hung out with and partied with, was the beneficiary. The second Sailor was one of the rescues who risked his own life by entering the gun turret after the explosion to fight the fire and hopefully find survivors. He had described the scene as the worst possible thing anyone could imagine and actually passed out due to the smoke and heat.

The final analysis was that the two had been lovers and that the relationship had fallen apart so due to a broken heart one of them had decided to take his life and the rest of the crew. Just so happened that the surviving man from this relationship was also married and had a family back in the states. When this “verdict” was disclosed there was major repercussions, no doubt. First from the beneficiary of the insurance policy who disclosed that the whole insurance policy was totally taken out of context and that his deceased friend had taken the policy out because he wanted to make sure his buddy and his family would benefit if anything happened to him. He had also joked that he was only 19 so it would probably be a long time before this would happen.
Other members of the crew came forward to say that if he was a homosexual, he hid it very well. They had just finished a port visit in Puerto Rico and, well let’s just say he seemed very HETEROSEXUAL.

The Navy had hoped that the explanation would just be rubber stamped by congress and everyone would move on. Not so fast was the response from both Congress, the President and the Media. A new investigation was launched. Lots of interviews from crew members and families. And in the end a totally different conclusion was reached.

It was determined that during the refurbishing of the Battle Ships most of the attention was centered around the propulsion, electronics, radar and communication systems. For some unexplained reason the gun turrets were not as included as one might have reasoned. It was also discovered that much of the gun powder used was left over from the original stock. Also, that due to the number of men it took to man one turret there just wasn’t the man power so the turrets were short of personnel. That and the lack of sufficient training and. Well, it was just a mass of mistakes.

The verdict of the “Official” Navy investigation was overturned and the final conclusion led to the decommissioning of all 4 of the Battle Ships and they were returned to the moth ball fleet.

As I said, I’m not judging but when it comes to trusting guys setting in an office thousands of miles away or a congregation of Sailors chanting and cheering for their Captain?

As the great grandson of Theodore Roosevelt stated.

“In this era when so many seem to place expediency over honor, it is heartening that so many others are showing great courage, some even risking their lives. Theodore Roosevelt, in his time, chose the honorable course, Captain Crozier has done the same.”

---