SAN DIEGO — Thousands of people have signed an online petition demanding Captain Brett Crozier be reinstated as commanding officer of the USS Roosevelt.
Capt. Crozier was reassigned last week after he asked for help from Navy leaders amid the coronavirus outbreak on his ship. Since his dismissal, he has reportedly tested positive for COVID-19.
A video of Capt. Crozier's sendoff went viral.
"When I watched that video I actually got choked up a little bit," said former Navy sailor Trinity Favre. "Because I've never seen anything like that."
"Never have I ever seen any show of support like that," he said.
Favre spent 5 years in the Navy. He served under Captain Crozier in 2019 while on board the USS Roosevelt.
He says Capt. Crozier was the kind of leader that took time to get to know his crew. He disagrees with the Navy's decision to reassign him.
"I was honestly upset," he said. "I have friends on that boat that are affected by this. People I consider family."
Last week, Crozier made headlines because of a now famous letter he wrote complaining the Navy was not acting fast enough to get his crew off the ship and into isolation amid an outbreak of COVID-19 on the aircraft carrier.
"That demonstrated extremely poor judgment in the middle of a crisis because what it's done it's just created a firestorm," said Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly.
But Favre says his friends on board the ship told him "They feel betrayed. They had somebody who cared about them, willing to do what was right, and he got in trouble."
Favre would've been on the USS Roosevelt with the sailors amid the coronavirus outbreak, had his contract with the Navy not been ending in March.
"That's going to set the bar for every other leadership," said Favre. "Like you're gonna have other leaders who want to help but they're going to be afraid to because they're afraid of the repercussions," he said.