The Teddy Roosevelt in unreal ghost ship world

MY TIMES STORY THAT DIDN'T MAKE IT ON SATURDAY: The “floating city” aircraft carrier, USS Theodore Roosevelt, normal population 4,800, is like a ghost ship with fewer than 800 on board, each of whom is masked and under orders to stay 6ft apart. The transformation of the 1,092ft nuclear-powered 97,000-ton carrier from being one of the US Navy’s most potent forward-deployed warfighting platforms, nicknamed “The Big Stick” by the crew, to becoming a ship on life support has had repercussions across the whole of the American military. The ship’s commanding officer with 30 years of military experience was fired, the acting US Navy secretary resigned, another carrier, USS Harry S Truman, which was due home was told to stay at sea and everyone in the Pentagon wants to know when the Teddy Roosevelt can return to vital operations in the South China Sea. Even the most senior US military commander, General Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, has admitted that the coronavirus pandemic has “sidelined” this particular carrier. It could be several more weeks before the carrier can leave port, Mark Esper, US defence secretary, has said. With more than 4,000 of the crew quarantined ashore in the US strategic base of Guam in the western Pacific, many of the 800 left on board are engaged in the most comprehensive cleaning operation ever carried out on a US warship. Every single space on the carrier, and there are 2,500 of them, has had to be disinfected. There are 500 to go, according to Lieutenant James Adams, a spokesman for the US Pacific Fleet in Hawaii. “We think of this as similar to painting our way out of a room. The ship will be cleaned space by space and access to each space will be closed off,” he said. The final spaces cleaned will be the “ship entry points”. Other crew members are ensuring the safety of the nuclear power plants and the weapon systems.Feeding the 800 is rudimentary. With the galleys (kitchens) closed for virus-cleaning, Lieutenant Adams said they were getting meals-ready-to-eat (MRE) rations that come wrapped in plastic, plus pre-made sandwiches delivered to the ship daily. MREs are normally basic rations for the US Army and Marines in the field. Ever since Covid-19 invaded the carrier on March 22, the infection rate has increased daily. It’s currently 669 cases, one sailor has died and seven are in hospital, one in intensive care suffering from shortness of breath. After the firing of commanding officer Captain Brett Crozier over his leaked appeal for more help, his predecessor Captain Carlos Sardiello was brought back to take charge. Captain Sardiello who as an aviator performed more than 500 carrier-arrested landings, is on board masterminding attempts to return the Theodore Roosevelt to a fully-crewed warship. The first round of sailors who left the ship after testing positive are now completing their recovery. “It’s a journey but supporting each other is how we get through this,” Captain Sardiello wrote on the carrier’s website. “There is a saying, no ship sails on yesterday’s wind. We move forward by what we do here and now,” he wrote. *Do the crews of US ballistic-missile Ohio class submarines know about the coronavirus pandemic back at home while they enforce America’s round-the-clock nuclear deterrent? There is a legend that submariners are never given bad news to ensure they stay committed to their mission, undistracted by worries about their families. A retired French navy chief Admiral Dominique Salles who commanded France’s ballistic-missile submarine squadron from 2003 to 2006, has been quoted as saying that the crews of his country’s deterrent boats would be unaware of the global spread of the virus. Ballistic-missile submarines normally operate for up to 80 days without resurfacing. However, the US Navy does not believe in keeping their submariners in the dark. “Submarines presently at sea have received information and reports regarding the coronavirus pandemic. Nobody is unaware of the situation on land,” Commander Jodie Cornell, spokeswoman for US Submarine Forces, said.