2003年5月29日，美国海军西奥多·罗斯福号航空母舰在拖船的协助下驶入弗吉尼亚州诺福克海军基地的母港。罗斯福号于1月6日离开诺福克进行训练演习，然后直接前往中东支持伊拉克战争。迈克·赫夫纳/盖蒂

A录像西奥多·罗斯福号航空母舰上的一名水手在脸书上发布了一条消息，说的是关于海军上尉布雷特·克罗泽被解雇的所有事情，以及当一名水手或士兵在外面工作时，他们的感受，与DC华盛顿的一张桌子上的景象相比。

代理海军部长托马斯·莫德里解除了指挥官的指挥权后，数百名水手站在航空母舰的悬挂甲板上为他们的指挥官欢呼鼓掌。

“这就是你如何派出有史以来最伟大的船长之一，”当你看到水手们拥挤在一起欢呼时，视频制作者这样描述道...为人民服务的人。”

克罗泽船长被解雇的官方原因是在引起人们对其船员中冠状病毒传播的关注方面表现出“极其糟糕的判断力”。莫德里说，他发出求救信“显示了在危机中的极端糟糕的判断力”。“因为它造成了一场大风暴。如果需要的话，这让人对这艘船出海的能力产生了怀疑。这让这些家庭对他们的船员的健康产生了怀疑，在这场危机中，这完全是一件不必要的事情。”

克罗泽船长的被解雇引起了来自高层的政治压力，特别是因为船长公开表示了对他指挥下的数千名水手的健康和安全的关注。

但克罗泽的解雇也是一个机会，让我们了解到军队是按照自己的一套规则运作的，执行严格的纪律和秩序，正是因为军队。想想看:从今年第一年开始，包括两名将军在内的10名高级军官因各种违规行为被解除了军事指挥权。这不是流行病，而是了解一种非常不同的文化的一个窗口。

• 1月:密西西比哥伦布空军基地第14行动组指挥官德里克·斯图尔特上校因“对自己的指挥能力失去信心”而被解除指挥权

• 1月:由布兰登·柯里少校领导的负责海军陆战队招募站克利夫兰的整个指挥团队因“表现不佳”而被解除职务

• 1月:空军研究实验室的指挥官威廉·库利少将被解除指挥权，“因为他对自己的领导能力失去了信心，这与目前正在调查的不当行为指控有关。”

• 1月:驱逐舰“迪凯特”号的指挥官鲍勃·鲍恩少校因“对他的指挥能力失去信心”而被解除职务

• 1月:拉尔夫·费瑟斯通中校，海军陆战队战斗攻击中队225的指挥官，在加利福尼亚米拉马尔的日落仪式上因飞得太低太快而被解除指挥权。

• 二月:威廉·斯万贝克少校，蒙彼利埃号潜艇的指挥官，在军事法庭上被判有罪，因为他与一名士兵的妻子有不正当的关系。他于2018年被解除职务。

• 3月:海军上校迈克尔·奥·恩里克兹，海军陆战队野战医疗训练营西部指挥官因“失去信任和信心”被解除指挥权

• 3月:海军陆战队中校克林顿·卡普佩尔和第6海军陆战队第3营的指挥小组“由于失去信任和信心”被解除职务

• 3月:威斯康星国民警卫队第128空中加油联队指挥官詹姆斯·洛克上校因“失去信心”而被解除指挥权...基于指挥环境、糟糕的判断和所谓的不当行为。”

• 欧洲地区卫生司令部司令罗纳德·斯蒂芬斯准将在调查不当行为后被解除指挥权。

在为解雇克罗泽辩护时，莫德里说:“首席执行官从来没有传达过我和世界其他人从他两天后发表的信中了解到的不同级别的警报。”

克罗泽的四页信于本周早些时候发表于《旧金山纪事报》。在那封信中，克罗泽警告说，如果不采取措施隔离和治疗他的4800名船员，他的船上的冠状病毒爆发——当时怀疑包括100多名船员——将迅速蔓延。

“虽然在传统意义上我们可能没有处于战争状态，”莫德里在解释他解除克罗泽指挥权的决定时说，“我们也没有真正处于和平状态。...也许比最近更是如此，我们要求指挥官在压力下具有判断力、成熟度和领导沉着，以理解他们在更大的动态战略背景下的行动的后果。”

莫德里本人毕业于海军学院，是一名经验丰富的行政人员，在特朗普政府之前曾在海军任职，他可能做了任何文职长官都会做的事情，即使最终证明这是一个非常不受欢迎的举动。

尽管美国海军学院说太平洋地区的海军领导人并不建议解除克罗泽的职务，很明显，在过去的两周内，五角大楼领导已经发布了命令，不应该公布任何关于冠状病毒在军队中传播的新细节。从海军的妻子到最高指挥官，人们被告知闭嘴。巧合的是，在冠状病毒席卷整个军队的时候，来自军事组织和基地的信息量急剧下降。

引用克罗泽上校自己的话，他在他现在著名的信中准确地说，他主张安全应该优先于任务:“我们没有在打仗。”正是因为这个原因，他被解雇了。严格的等级制度和命令规则。

克罗泽上尉大声说道。在这样做的时候，他犯下了军队的最大罪过，那就是将问题公之于众，并把问题带到家庭之外。像过去三个月被解除职务的其他10名高级指挥官一样，克罗泽的解雇遵循了内部规则和传统，首先尊重指挥系统。从海员到指挥官，这些规则看起来不像平民司法。事实上，军队在和平时期是一个无情的机构，正是为了确保没有人对规则、指挥系统和战时服从命令的重要性感到困惑。

毫无疑问，对他船上的水手来说，当然对一个渴望任何领导的平民世界来说，这整个事件看起来像是政治报复。事实上很可能是这样。在过去的一个月里，五角大楼里似乎没有人愿意冒险站出来，冒着白宫的愤怒说出自己的想法。

“现在太阳只照在一个人身上，”一名高级军官在几周前感叹五角大楼越来越多的乐观言论时说——尽管需要确凿的事实。

克罗泽被解雇无疑会引发一场政治风暴，但真正的问题是保密。如果军方更加透明地报道西奥多·罗斯福号航空母舰上的案例——每天，甚至每小时——那么每个人都会明白，需要采取极端的行动来拯救机组人员。相反，秘密掩盖了船上有多糟糕，迫使船长不得不这样做。

FIRING THE USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT'S COMMANDER EXPOSES THE MILITARY'S DEEP CULTURE OF SECRECY EVEN IN A PANDEMIC

The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is assisted by tugboats into the home port at Norfolk Naval Station May 29, 2003 in Norfolk, Virginia. The Roosevelt left Norfolk on January 6 for training exercises and then went directly to the Middle East in support of the war in Iraq.

Avideo posted on Facebook by a sailor onboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt says everything there is to say about the firing of Navy Capt. Brett Crozier about how things look to a sailor or soldier when they are out there doing their jobs, compared to the view from a desk in Washington, DC.

Hundreds of sailors stood in the hanger deck of the aircraft carrier shouting, applauding and cheering for their C.O. after he was relieved of command by Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly.

"That's how you send out one of the greatest captains you ever had," the video maker narrates as you watch sailors crowded together cheering, "... the man for the people."

The official cause for Captain Crozier's firing is showing "extremely poor judgment" in bringing attention to the spread of coronavirus amongst his crew. His sending of a letter calling for help "demonstrated extremely poor judgment in the middle of a crisis," Modly says. "Because what it's done is, it's created a firestorm. It's created doubts about the ship's ability to go to sea if it needs to. It's created doubt among the families about the health of their sailors, and that was a completely unnecessary thing to do in the midst of the crisis."

The firing of Captain Crozier rings of political pressure from on high, especially because the ship's captain went public in his concern for the health and safety of the thousands of sailors under his command.

But Crozier's firing is also an opportunity to learn that the military operates by its own set of rules, enforcing strict discipline and order, precisely because it is the military. Consider this: since the first of the year, 10 senior military officers, including two generals, have been relieved of their military commands for a variety of infractions. It's not an epidemic, but a window into understanding a very different culture.

• January: Col. Derek Stuart, the commander of 14th Operations Group at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi was relieved of command over "a loss of confidence in his ability to command."

• January: The entire command team in charge of Marine Corps recruiting station Cleveland, led by Maj. Brandon Currie are relieved for "substandard performance."

• January: Maj. Gen. William Cooley, commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory is relieved of command "due to a loss of confidence in his ability to lead, related to alleged misconduct which is currently under investigation,"

• January: Cmdr. Bob Bowen, commander of the destroyer USS Decatur, is relieved "due to loss of confidence in his ability to command."

• January: Lt. Col. Ralph Featherstone, commanding officer of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 225, is relieved of command after flying too low and too fast during a sundown ceremony in Miramar, California.

• February: Cmdr. William B. Swanbeck, commander of the submarine USS Montpelier, is found guilty in a court martial for having inappropriate relationship with an enlisted man's wife. He had been relieved of duty in 2018.

• March: Navy Capt. Michael O. Enriquez, commander of Marine Corps Field Medical Training Battalion West is relieved of command for "loss of trust and confidence."

• March: Marine Corps Lt. Col. Clinton Kappel and the command team of 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment were relieved of their duties "due to a loss of trust and confidence."

• March: Col. James V. Locke, commander of the 128th Air Refueling Wing of the Wisconsin National Guard is relieved of command based upon "lost confidence ... based on command climate, poor judgment and alleged misconduct."

• Brig. Gen. Ronald Stephens, commander of Regional Health Command Europe, is relieved of command after an investigation of misconduct.

In justifying his firing of Crozier, Modly says: "At no time did the C.O. relay the various levels of alarm that I, along with the rest of the world, learned from his letter when it was published two days later."

Crozier's four-page letter was published earlier this week in The San Francisco Chronicle. In that letter, Crozier warned that if steps weren't taken to isolate and treat his crew of 4,800 sailors, the coronavirus outbreak on his ship—then suspected to include over 100 sailors—would rapidly spread.

"While we may not be at war in a traditional sense," Modly says in explaining his decision to relieve Crozier of command, "neither are we truly at peace. ... Perhaps more so than in the recent past, we require commanders with the judgment, maturity, and leadership composure under pressure to understand the ramifications of their actions within that larger dynamic strategic context."

Modly, himself a Naval Academy graduate and an experienced executive who has served in Navy positions prior to the Trump administration, probably did what any civilian chief would have done, even if ultimately proves to be a highly unpopular move.

Though the U.S. Naval Institute says that Navy leaders in the Pacific did not recommend Crozier's removal, it's clear that orders have gone out in the past two weeks from the Pentagon leadership that no new details on coronavirus spread within the military should be released. From Navy wives to the top commanders, people are being told to shut up. Coincidentally, there has been a precipitous decline in the amount of information coming out of military organizations and bases at a very time when the coronavirus is sweeping through the armed services.

To quote Captain Crozier himself, he said precisely that in his now famous letter arguing that safety should come first over mission: "We are not at war." And it is for that reason that he was fired. The routines of rigid hierarchy and command rule.

Captain Crozier spoke out. And in doing so, he committed the cardinal sin of the military, which is to go public and take a problem outside the family. Like the other 10 senior commanders who have been relieved in the past three months, Crozier's firing follows internal rules and traditions that honor the chain of command first. From seaman to commander, those rules don't look like civilian justice. And indeed the military is an unforgiving institution in peacetime precisely to ensure that no one is confused about the importance of the rules, the chain of command, and following orders in wartime.

There is no doubt that to the sailors aboard his ship, and certainly to a civilian world starved for any kind of leadership, this whole incident looks like political retribution. And indeed it probably is. No one in the Pentagon over the past month seems to have been willing to go out on a limb and risk the White House's ire in speaking out.

"The sun only shines on one individual right now," said a senior military officer a couple of weeks ago in lamenting the increasing happy talk coming out of the Pentagon—even as hard facts are needed.

Crozier's firing undoubtedly will provoke a political firestorm, but the real problem is secrecy. Had the military been more transparent in reporting the cases from the USS Theodore Roosevelt—daily, even hourly—it would have been obvious to everyone that extreme action needed to be taken to save the crew. Instead, secrecy hid how bad things were on the ship, forcing the captain's hand.