It took more than 30 hours for sailors to put out the fire aboard the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford last week, sailors and military officials said, as the beleaguered ship continued its monthslong slog through President Trump’s military operations.
The fire started in the ship’s main laundry area last Thursday. By the time it was over, more than 600 sailors and crew members had lost their beds and have since been bunking down on floors and tables, officials said.
The fire was only the latest in a series of maintenance problems on the Ford, the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier. It has had plumbing issues with the 650 toilets on board. NPR reported that the undersized and poorly designed toilet system frequently breaks down.
The Ford is now entering its 10th month of deployment. It will break the record for longest post-Vietnam War carrier deployment if it is still at sea in mid-April. That record, at 294 days, was set by the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln in 2020.
A major maintenance and refitting period that the Ford was supposed to undergo early this year at the Newport News Naval Shipyard in Virginia has been put off, military officials said.
Crew members on the Ford have been told that their deployment will probably be extended into May, which would put them at an entire year at sea, twice the length of a normal aircraft carrier deployment.
The Ford is conducting flight operations around the clock, Navy officials said.
A military official said that the Pentagon was aware that the carrier was reaching the limits of its deployment strength. He said that the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush is preparing to deploy to the Middle East and will probably relieve the Ford.