The fire last week aboard the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier was much more serious than the US Navy announced. The carrier is still in the Red Sea, where it is involved in operations in the Gulf.
The fire broke out on Thursday in the ventilation shaft of a dryer in the laundry room and quickly spread to the sleeping quarters. Sailors fought the flames for over 30 hours. After extinguishing the fire, over 600 sailors and crew members were left without beds and are now sleeping on the floor and tables, writes New York Times.
Thousands of people can no longer wash their clothes
The New York Times mentions that it obtained information from onboard, although communication with aircraft carrier crews is difficult even under the best circumstances.
During a war, ships and military bases involved in operations limit the crews' ability to communicate with the outside world. Officials and sailors interviewed spoke on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to discuss publicly.
Central Command stated in an official release that the fire did not cause "any damage to the ship's propulsion system, and the carrier remains fully operational."
Two sailors suffered minor injuries "that do not endanger their lives" and received medical treatment, the Command stated. Sources on the ship told the American daily that dozens of military personnel inhaled smoke.
Since the laundry room was destroyed, the 4,500 sailors and fighter pilots who have been at sea for ten months can no longer wash their uniforms and linens.
The aircraft carrier that no longer reaches shore
As long as three football fields (337 meters) and as tall as a 20-story building (76 meters), the U.S.S. Gerald Ford is the largest and newest aircraft carrier in the US Navy.
The ship was in the Mediterranean Sea on October 24 when Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered it to head to the Caribbean to bolster President Donald Trump's pressure campaign on Nicolás Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, before his capture.
From the Caribbean, the aircraft carrier rushed to the Middle East for the US-Israel war against Iran, which is already in its third week.
USS Gerald Ford will break the record for the longest aircraft carrier deployment since the Vietnam War if it remains at sea until mid-April. The previous record, 294 days, was set by USS Abraham Lincoln in 2020.
The largest US aircraft carrier pushed to the limit
Ford's crew members were informed that their mission could be extended until May, keeping them at sea for a whole year, twice as long as the normal interval for aircraft carrier sailors.
The US Navy has maintained deployed aircraft carriers for nine months, sometimes a little longer, during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Deployments of these ships are not usually extended beyond six months, as the overruns are very challenging for both the ship itself and its crew, explained US Navy experts.
"Ships get tired and damaged during long deployments," said Rear Admiral John F. Kirby, a retired naval officer, former Pentagon press secretary, and spokesperson for national security in the Biden administration. "You can't run a ship for so long and so intensely and expect it and its crew to operate at maximum capacity."
Navy officials stated that U.S.S. Gerald Ford is conducting continuous flight operations.
Over 600 clogged toilets
The fire was just the latest in a series of maintenance problems for the aircraft carrier. It had sanitary facility issues with its 650 toilets on board. According to NPR, the undersized and poorly designed toilet system frequently malfunctions.
The ship was supposed to enter the Newport News Shipyard in Virginia earlier this year, but maintenance and refurbishment operations were postponed, military officials said.
A military official stated that the Pentagon knew the aircraft carrier was reaching its deployment limits. He said the USS George H.W. Bush is preparing for deployment in the Middle East and will likely replace the USS Gerald Ford.