Report: USS Gerald R. Ford to Leave Red Sea for Repairs After Laundry Fire
The supercarrier USS Gerald R. Ford is scheduled to return to Souda Bay, Crete shortly for repairs to damage from the laundry room fire that broke out belowdecks last week, official sources told Kathimerini. USNI has confirmed the decision.
The fire - first reported by U.S. Central Command and later described at length by the New York Times - appears to have started in a dryer vent duct and spread, damaging berthing areas. According to USNI, one crewmember required a medevac and more than 200 had to be treated for smoke inhalation. The outlet reports that the Navy was forced to pull 1,000 mattresses out of the still-in-commissioning sister ship USS John F. Kennedy and ship them to Ford as replacements, along with spare clothing.
USS Ford's laundry capabilities are effectively out of service, and crewmembers who were displaced from their berthing by the fire are reportedly catching sleep wherever space is available. The ship has already been away from home port for nearly 10 months, and it is on track to rival the longest carrier deployments in U.S. Navy history. If assigned further tasking, or held in Crete for extended repairs, Ford could pass by
In these challenging conditions, Ford's crew has kept up a steady pace of strike fighter sorties, contributing to combat operations in the Iran conflict. The ship's departure for Souda Bay will temporarily leave one other carrier on station in the region - USS Abraham Lincoln. A third carrier, USS George H.W. Bush, has finished workup at Norfolk and is expected to deploy to relieve Ford.
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U.S. Central Command said Monday that USS Abraham Lincoln is "sailing close to Iran"; an earlier Chinese-released "MizarVision" satellite intelligence report claimed that the ship had pulled back to waters off the southwestern coast of Oman. U.S. commercial satellite imaging providers have imposed a multiday delay on deliverables for the region, so the Chinese claim cannot be readily verified.
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