The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford is on its way back. The US military failed to announce an important detail after the fire on board
The American aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, which is part of the air strike support force against Iran, will dock next week at a base on the Greek island of Crete, coming from the Red Sea, to resupply, after suffering a fire last week that lasted more than 30 hours and caused the injury of two soldiers, the Spanish news agency EFE writes on Tuesday.
According to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, the return of the aircraft carrier to the Souda base on the island of Crete, where it had departed on February 28, may also be related to the investigation into the fire that broke out on March 12 in the ship's main laundry.
The American military base at Souda is the only one in the region that has an infrastructure that can accommodate such a massive ship with nuclear propulsion, notes Agerpres.
The fire was not related to the US attacks on Iran, the command of the US military insisted on the same day, which confirmed two wounded on board the aircraft carrier.
What the US military leadership failed to announce
What this command did not say is that the fire was brought under control only after more than 30 hours and left about 600 crew members without beds, out of a total of about 4,500 on board, who have since had to sleep on the floor or on tables, according to the American publication The New York Times.
The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford has already been on a mission at sea for ten months, another source of discontent among the military.
From the Mediterranean, where it originally went, it was deployed to the Caribbean to take part in the US blockade of Venezuela and was later sent back to the Middle East for the war against Iran.
Given the negative reactions of the crew to the conditions on the ship, which are “far from ideal”, and to the too long duration of the mission, the Pentagon is considering replacing this aircraft carrier in military operations against Iran with the aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush, The New York Times also wrote.
Although it is the most expensive aircraft carrier in the world, American sailors also complained in February of broken toilets, routine maintenance being difficult in the context of a long deployment at sea.
