Commentary
The $15 billion USS Gerald Ford was forced to cut short its deployment because of a laundry fire that did millions of dollars in damage. And it has been revealed that even while it remained on station in the Persian Gulf, the carrier could not generate combat sorties for two days because of the raging 30-hour laundry fire that drove some 600 sailors out of their sleeping quarters. Thirty hours to get a laundry fire under control raises a couple of questions. Why would a laundry catch on fire, and why did it take the firefighters and damage-control personnel of the USS Gerald Ford so long to put out the laundry fire? Sadly, the answers can be found in some wrongheaded decisions that the Navy made in its effort to be viewed as being “green.”
