Posted on 03/18/2026 8:19:05 AM PDT by moviefan8
he USS Gerald Ford is headed for service repairs in Crete days after experiencing an hourslong fire while deployed in the Red Sea for service in the Iran war.
The aircraft carrier will spend over a week in port at the Naval Support Activity Souda Bay for repairs, according to the U.S. Naval Institute. The ship's move from the Middle East comes after a fire that started in the laundry area on Thursday reportedly burned through part of the ship's sleeping quarters and lasted about 30 hours before it was extinguished.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
We need to see if the location is within the bowels of the ship, or on the outside.
That is all you need to identify if it was an Iranian weapon.
It was a laundry fire. Someone didn’t clean out the dryer vents.
How many laundry rooms does an aircraft carrier have? Is this the only one? I suspect it is toast and all of those machines will need to be replaced.
Red6 is suggesting that could be a cover story.
Sounds to me like a missile. Everybody therefore panic and scream.
We are not bombing somebody, we are fighting somebody that has been preparing to fight for as long as we have.
Wow missed this one. It happened almost a week ago. It will be interesting to see what the Navy will do with the Nimitz. It is heading back to Norfolk for a reported decommissioning in May.
My guess is the Ford will be heading to the dry dock for repairs once it arrives back in the US..
10% of the crew berths were destroyed. That’s a problem.
Red6 has never been around enlisted men before, apparently.
It would take about 8 seconds for the real story to come out.
Sounds like negligence or, at the most serious, a muslim enlisted guy/ANTIFA guy sticking an oily rag in the dryer vent.
I am not sure that destroyed is the proper term. Unlivable may be more proper. There is probably plenty of soot and lighting that no longer works, etc..
“I read somewhere that the fire got into ductwork and was able to spread substantially, which might explain the duration as well.”
extremely poorly designed ductwork that can’t be sealed off in the event of fire on a warship ...
The Nimitz will be inactivated in 2027.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/uss-nimitz-wont-be-decommissioned-until-2027-ps-031626
Delaying the decommissioning of USS Nimitz to next year will allow the US Navy to retain 11 nuclear-powered supercarriers in the fleet, even if CVN-68 remains in Newport News and doesn’t deploy again for the remainder of its service life. In other words, the one-year delay may simply be a matter of satisfying US lawmakers by keeping 11 carriers on paper. Title 10 of the US Code, specifically 10 U.S.C. § 8062, mandates that the US Navy maintain at least 11 operational aircraft carriers in its fleet.
“The naval combat forces of the Navy shall include not less than 11 operational aircraft carriers. For purposes of this subsection, an operational aircraft carrier includes an aircraft carrier that is temporarily unavailable for worldwide deployment due to routine or scheduled maintenance or repair,” the code explains.
But “operational” is a loose term to say the least!
No Future Deployment for the Nimitz, but a Long Goodbye
As the US Navy’s supercarriers are too large to pass through the Panama Canal, the carrier’s homeport shift from Naval Base Kitsap to Naval Station Norfolk requires that the warship take the long way around South America, transiting from the Pacific to the Atlantic at Cape Horn. The homeport shift is also a goodbye tour for the US Navy’s second nuclear-powered flattop. CVN-68 made a port visit to San Diego, her former homeport, and departed on Saturday.
In for unexpected repairs.
They signed up for the seagoing vessel version of Car Shield. Saw some ads with Ice-T and Danica Patrick. Saved them a lot of cash. Even have tug boat tow service.
Strain of getting ready for Iran:
“I’m givin’ it all she’s got, captain. Any more and she’ll blow.”
Thanks for the link. That is the best explanation I’ve seen yet...
Have to remove the lint.
The officers and senior petty officers tasking lint removal will be torched if the report is accurate. CO and XO are not going to get any advancements to admiral and will probably retire after this event..
Wow.
I can’t wait for the next television ad featuring the Navy.
How many I'm not sure it sounds like they had one forward and aft. Supply Dept ran the Laundry but A-Div {engineering} maintained the equipment best I remember. I am also wondering if it was a chemical fire as they also have dry cleaning for officers and enlisted dress blues. My division did the upkeep I remember that much a shop called Hotel Services that maintained Galley, Laundry, ships heating, hot water, and fire pumps was all one shop. WE also had a Machine Shop, Hydraulics, O2N2 Plants, and ships air conditioning and refrigeration shop which I was in. There was also a lot of overlapping in responsibilities. For example E-Division did all the ships electrical work including ours.
I am guess the laundry dried clothes one of two ways electrical or Steam heat exchangers. Electrical would be my guess on the FORD. I'll have to ask one of my shipmates I know who worked Hotel Services how clothes were dried. To be honest most Snipes {Engineering} did not use ships laundry. Each shop pooled in $10 or so each and one of us went to but a household washing machine we shared. Generally we did this each deployment. That made laundry happy because our uniforms were usually filthy with oil grease etc.
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