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Sailors cheer USS Theodore Roosevelt captain who was relieved of command

Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Michael Lusk takes a swab sample for COVID-19 testing aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt on Wednesday. Capt. Brett Crozier was relieved of command Thursday after asking for more help with an outbreak aboard the vessel in a letter on Monday. Photo by Dartañon D. De La Garza/U.S. Navy 
Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Michael Lusk takes a swab sample for COVID-19 testing aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt on Wednesday. Capt. Brett Crozier was relieved of command Thursday after asking for more help with an outbreak aboard the vessel in a letter on Monday. Photo by Dartañon D. De La Garza/U.S. Navy 

April 3 (UPI) -- Hundreds of sailors cheered and shouted the name of Capt. Brett Crozier as he departed the aircraft carrier he has led since November, videos posted to social media Friday morning show.

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Crozier was relieved of his role as leader of the ship Thursday after sending a letter earlier this week asking for more resources to deal with a coronavirus outbreak on the aircraft carrier.

The Roosevelt docked in Guam March 26 so its crew of nearly 5,000 sailors could be tested for the novel coronavirus amid an outbreak. It had been deployed in the Phillippine and South China Seas.

Crozier's letter said sailors could not be appropriately isolated aboard the vessel and asked for help quarantining them in lodgings on the island, a U.S. territory.

Acting secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly said Wednesday that it was unlikely Crozier would be punished for writing the letter unless it was determined he had intentionally leaked it to the San Francisco Chronicle, which initially reported on the email.

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Thursday Modly said Crozier had not followed appropriate security practices and that Navy officials had already been in the process of helping obtain the resources Crozier asked for before the letter was written.

Navy officials said this week that the branch was working to isolate and test large groups of sailors on the vessel and to quarantine them in shifts on hotels.

Modly said Thursday the service had found about 1,700 hotel rooms for sailors on Guam, and that 114 sailors have tested positive for the virus, a number he expects to increase.

When the Roosevelt initially docked Modly said nobody would be allowed to leave the ship "except on the pier."

At a Saturday press briefing on coronavirus response, President Donald Trump said he didn't know much about the situation and was not involved in the decision to fire Crozier, but also that he supported the decision to do so.

"I thought it was terrible, what he did, to write a letter," Trump said.

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