He just resigned.
I'm torn about the relieving of Crozier. One, a commander's first responsibility is to the mission of his command. In that regard, the apparent lack of response from higher HQ led to a degradation of his unit's mission.
The farthest I got in the Army was as a battery commander of 300 soldiers, a much smaller unit obviously. We had our mission to accomplish, and I needed every soldier to get it done. I had their backs, they had mine. I see a similar response from Crozier's servicemembers.
However, sending that email out to some 20 addressees was a stupid, certainly desperate act. He had to have known the blowback would be fierce. In the end, did his actions help or hinder his unit's mission? That remains to be seen.
So Crozier and Modly are both out of the picture now. More turnover in key positions, who will be next to go?
@Night Hides Not In MY semi-mind,it was a noble act,akin to falling on his own sword. His ship was either combat-ineffective or close to it,and getting nothing but worse. I have no doubt he tried to tell his superiors his ship needed to be pulled off the line and replaced by one with a healthy crew,and was told to "drive on".
Nothing else makes sense. After all,the man was given command of a freaking aircraft carrier. These people aren't chosen casually.
IF my supposition is true,it seems to ME his only options were to keep sailing with a undermanned ship with unqualified people holding down key positions until they too fell sick because there was no one qualified to replace them.
That way you eventually end up with a carrier floating dead in the water,filled full of dead sailors. Gee,I wonder what a modern US carrier with a full mission load of weapons,communications technology,engineering technology,etc,etc,etc would be worth to the Chinese if they boarded it on the open sea and claimed salvage rights?
Looked at in this light,the loss of ONE man's career,even if it is YOURS,seems like a small price to pay.
Make no mistake about it,though. The Admiral next up in his chain of command should be backed up against a wall and shot.