USS Ford Heading to Crete for Repairs

Thursday, March 19, 2026

The USS Gerald Ford is headed for service repairs in Crete days after experiencing an hours long fire while deployed in the Red Sea for service in the Iran war.

Posted by truthhurts at 07:30 PM | 26 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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The USS Gerald R Ford is heading to Crete for repairs after a large fire on board last week.

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-- Mark Chadbourn (@chadbourn.bsky.social) Mar 17, 2026 at 5:32 PM

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Hopefully, the toilet problems will also be repaired...

Major plumbing headache haunts $13 billion U.S. carrier off the coast of Venezuela (January 2026)
www.npr.org

... New documents show the crew on board the United States' newest aircraft carrier are growing increasingly frustrated by design flaws that lead to regular failures in the ship's toilet system.

The USS Gerald R. Ford has been deployed for seven months since it left Norfolk in June. The carrier is currently at the center of the Trump administration's flotilla of Navy ships in the Caribbean. Since the raid that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, the carrier continues to work with the Coast Guard as the U.S. interdicts oil tankers tied to Venezuela.

On board the carrier, the crew is battling a toilet system that the General Accountability Office reported in 2020 was undersized and poorly designed. The system continues to fail during deployment, forcing the crew of 4,600 sailors to live with a system that randomly breaks down during their months at sea. ...

#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-03-17 10:41 PM | Reply

... A fire on the cream of our navy for 30 FREAKING HOURS!?! ...

No fire-suppression systems?

#2 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-03-17 10:43 PM | Reply | Funny: 1 | Newsworthy 1

PEDO DONNIE is insane

#3 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-03-17 10:45 PM | Reply

upload.wikimedia.org

#4 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2026-03-17 10:55 PM | Reply

@#3 ... PEDO DONNIE is insane ...

Baltimora - Tarzan Boy (1985)
www.youtube.com

Wow, 1985. Rock videos were so different then ...

Lyrics excerpt ...

genius.com

...
"Tarzan Boy" is a song recorded by Italian-based act Baltimora. It was the group's debut single, released in April 1985, from its first album Living in the Background, on which it features as first track. ...

Best known in years following for being the jingle to Cool Mint Listerine ( www.youtube.com ) ...

[Verse 1]
Jungle life, I'm far away from nowhere
On my own like Tarzan boy
Hide-and-seek, I play alone while rushing 'cross the forest
Monkey business on a sunny afternoon
Jungle life, I'm living in the open
Native beat that carries on
Burning bright, a fire that blows a signal to the sky
I sit and wonder, does the message get to you?
...

#5 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-03-17 11:08 PM | Reply

Something smells REAL off about this whole story.

Not if you consider that USS Ford is being used more as a stage prop than a weapon.

#6 | Posted by REDIAL at 2026-03-17 11:11 PM | Reply

Cv59 and cv63 Vet here. A berthing fire started in the laundry room and now 600 sailors have been displaced.

Must have been a hell of of a fire.

No single berthing houses 600 people. Compartmentalization is the name of the game. Maybe 100 max.

#7 | Posted by fresno500 at 2026-03-18 11:38 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

Has stinky's hospital ship made it to Greenland yet?

#8 | Posted by reinheitsgebot at 2026-03-18 11:40 AM | Reply | Funny: 1

#7 | Posted by fresno500

Precisely. 30 hours?!?!?! That isn't going to be a month in port to fix.

#9 | Posted by GalaxiePete at 2026-03-18 12:21 PM | Reply | Funny: 1

Hopefully, the toilet problems will also be repaired...

via GIPHY

#10 | Posted by Nixon at 2026-03-18 02:14 PM | Reply

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

The U.S. Navy is investigating potential sabotage following a March 2026 fire in the laundry area of the USS Gerald R. Ford in the Red Sea. While some reports suggest disgruntled crew members sabotaged systems due to high deployment stress, official sources confirm the fire was contained without affecting propulsion.

double hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Plumbing Failures: There were widespread reports of severe, persistent toilet and sewage issues (clogged pipes) in early 2026, which some sources alleged were caused by crew sabotage, though others blamed design limitations.

clogged pipes, clogged with t-shirts

#11 | Posted by truthhurts at 2026-03-18 03:08 PM | Reply

Each US aircraft carrier has at least one NCIS SA aboard for counterintelligence and criminal investigation missions.

If this rumor is true about internal sabotage by crewmembers, that would be a black eye on that NCIS SA or detail aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford.

In the old days, NIS SAs were called "pecker-checkers" by uniformed USN personnel.

#12 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2026-03-18 03:16 PM | Reply

Has stinky's hospital ship made it to Greenland yet?

Good question. MarineTraffic shows that Mercy left Mobile on Feb 24 and is now off the coast of Oregon. Comfort is still in dry dock in Mobile.

#13 | Posted by REDIAL at 2026-03-18 03:18 PM | Reply

The MarineTraffic app.

Don't bother Dad right now.

He's watching boats.

#14 | Posted by donnerboy at 2026-03-18 03:23 PM | Reply

The IRGC High Command would like nothing better than to sink a zillion dollar American aircraft carrier.

Tehran also stated that any port that assists repairing the The USS Gerald R. Ford becomes a legitimate military or asymmetric warfare target.

Souda Bay, Crete

During WWII, the Imperial Japanese Navy did their best to hide their expensive, prized battleships from US forces.

Nazi naval prestige plummeted after the Bismarck was sunk in 1941.

#15 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2026-03-18 03:54 PM | Reply

The IRGC High Command would like nothing better than to sink a zillion dollar American aircraft carrier.

Well, it was stationed 1,000 miles away from Iran so that was not going to happen. The Israelis actually had a shorter flight to Tehran.

#16 | Posted by REDIAL at 2026-03-18 03:57 PM | Reply

Wonder how many drones hit the target. At least 2, I'd wager. I'll wait for Ukraine war expert Sitzbath to tell us all how many hours the Iranians have until they're overrun by superior Russian....errrr..... American troops. I'll wait.

#17 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-03-19 03:45 PM | Reply

@#11 ... Plumbing Failures: There were widespread reports of severe, persistent toilet and sewage issues (clogged pipes) in early 2026, which some sources alleged were caused by crew sabotage, though others blamed design limitations. ...

Maybe the Navy should call in DHS-nominated Sec Mullin to help with an area he actually has experience in?

#18 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-03-19 08:04 PM | Reply

The IRGC High Command would like nothing better than to sink a zillion dollar American aircraft carrier.
~ CaptnObvious

#19 | Posted by oneironaut at 2026-03-19 08:10 PM | Reply

... A fire on the cream of our navy for 30 FREAKING HOURS!?! ...
No fire-suppression systems?

I am just amazed at Gaslighter's .. gaslighting

The New York Times reported this week that it took more than 30 hours to put out the fire, and that 600 crew members lost their beds. The US official said, however, that the entire effort in responding to the fire took 30 hours " putting out the fire, cleaning up water damage or other substances used to put out the fire, and ensuring there were no flare-ups " not that the fire itself burned for 30 hours.
www.cnn.com

#20 | Posted by oneironaut at 2026-03-19 08:18 PM | Reply

I had posted a thread on this issue ...

#21 | Posted by oneironaut at 2026-03-19 08:19 PM | Reply

@#16 ... Well, it was stationed 1,000 miles away from Iran so that was not going to happen. ...

Doesn't Iran have long-range missiles?

Oh wait, Sec Hegseth has said Iran's military has been defaeated.

So that's not a problem.

#22 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-03-19 08:37 PM | Reply

They don't have long range, self-guided cruise missiles that can strike a US carrier from 1000 miles away.

They have medium range ballistic missiles. The Circular Error Probable, the measurement of accuracy, of a Shahab-3 MRBM is 2.5 kilometers. The most recent MRBM, of which they had very few before this started, was based on a Chinese DF-15. The CEP on that is 300 meters, but it only goes 800km. To even attempt to hit a carrier you'd have to establish a sensor kill chain that can provide real time telemetry to the missile. If the missile is too fast, it is enveloped by an ionic sheath, so there's no comms going in or out. If the missile isn't fast enough, it's intercepted. If your kill chain sensors are detected, they're killed and you can't aim anything.

#23 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-03-19 09:26 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

If you want to sink a US carrier, your best hope is a fuel cell hybrid diesel-electric submarine and torpedos. Preferably nuclear torpedos. Active sonar doesn't care how quiet you are, and the US has autonomous manta ray submarines and other exotic weapon systems hunting you down. The odds are not good.

#24 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-03-19 09:29 PM | Reply

but Iran's military isn't defeated. Not without the same level of viciousness we unleashed on the Japanese. Should have been content with decapitating their surrogates, destroying the centrifuges, regime change is a fools errand.

#25 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-03-19 09:31 PM | Reply

In the old days, NIS SAs were called "pecker-checkers" by uniformed USN personnel.

#12 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS

"pecker-checkers" were corpsmen.

#26 | Posted by john_savage2 at 2026-03-20 01:17 PM | Reply