The Pentagon’s inspector general reported that the spread of coronavirus on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt was primarily caused by poor social distancing and the premature release of sailors from quarantine.
The coronavirus outbreak on the San Diego-based aircraft carrier was made worse by lapses in the Navy’s infectious disease mitigation policy, according to the redacted report, which is a Pentagon evaluation of two shipboard outbreaks, released Monday.
The Navy’s investigation revealed the ship’s leaders allowed social gathering areas, such as the ship’s gyms, to remain open and continued to perform nonessential urinalysis screenings for drugs among the crew during the outbreak, the inspector general found.
The outbreak on the ship led to the death of a sailor, the firing of the Roosevelt’s commanding officer and, indirectly, to the resignation of the Navy’s acting secretary.
About two months after the Theodore Roosevelt left San Diego in January 2020, the ship visited Da Nang, Vietnam. Two weeks after that visit, sailors on board began testing positive for COVID-19. The ship diverted to Guam, where the majority of the crew sequestered at local hotels as the virus spread.
Chief Petty Officer Charles Thacker, 41, died of the virus in April. More than 1,200 sailors — about 25 percent of the crew — tested positive over the next few weeks.
The incident led to the reassignment of former commander Capt. Brett Crozier by then-Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, who complained that a letter by Crozier seeking more help with the outbreak ended up leaked to the news media.
Modly later resigned after a speech he gave aboard the ship criticizing Crozier was publicized.
The ship was tied up in Guam for two months and resumed operations in June. It returned to San Diego in July and left for its current deployment in December.
The Roosevelt wasn’t the only unit criticized in the report. According to the inspector general, four out of five Navy component commands did not conduct biennial Pandemic Influenza and Infectious Disease exercises that Navy policy required even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Navy had not fully implemented measures intended to reduce the risk of the spread of infectious diseases,” the inspector general report said. “As a result of not conducting biennial PI&ID exercises, most Navy component commands did not exercise pandemic response in coordination with their supported combat commanders.”
Details about which four component commands failed to conduct the exercises were redacted from the report. The component commands listed include Naval Forces Europe-Africa, Central Command, Southern Command, Fleet Forces and the Pacific Fleet.
Essentially the inspector general found that while the Navy had plans and procedures in place, they were not followed, which exacerbated the outbreak onboard the Theodore Roosevelt.
According to the Navy’s internal investigation into the outbreak, the Roosevelt’s leaders prematurely let out of quarantine sailors who had the virus.
“Finally, due to an erroneous conclusion that the shipboard quarantining efforts were causing more Sailors to be infected, the ship ceased its quarantine efforts on March 29th, with over 4,000 Sailors still aboard,” the investigation, dated June 2020, says.
“This was done without consultation or notification to higher headquarters, and apparently was not discovered by higher headquarters leadership until the preliminary inquiry. The combination of these actions likely contributed to increased spread of the infection to more TR Sailors.”
The inspector general also noted that the Navy has applied lessons from the outbreak on other ships. Sailors now must undergo pre-deployment “ROM” periods — restriction of movement — for at least 14 days.
According to the report, Navy leadership has agreed with the inspector general’s recommendations to review and update its policies as a result of the pandemic and to ensure its component commands conduct pandemic exercises as required. These commands will conduct table-top exercises with Navy leadership by the end of the summer, the report says.
While most of the report focuses on the Theodore Roosevelt outbreak, a smaller outbreak on board the guided-missile destroyer USS Kidd also informed the inspector general’s recommendations.
The Kidd was performing anti-smuggling operations in the eastern Pacific when an outbreak of the virus led the ship to steam into San Diego during the spring. At the time, Vice Adm. Richard Brown, then the commander of the Naval Surface Force Pacific in San Diego, told the Union-Tribune that lessons from other outbreaks led to quick mitigating steps on the Kidd.
The Navy is withholding information about the pervasiveness of coronavirus in its ranks. The report includes a seven-page list of every Navy ship that has had at least one positive COVID-19 case, but the ship names are redacted.
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