POBNEWS24, Desk report Mar 19, 2026 : The US Navy has launched a formal investigation into whether sailors on board the US aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford deliberately set fire to the ship.
The fire, which broke out on Thursday, took more than 30 hours to put out, cost more than 600 crew members their beds and forced the aircraft carrier to make a final stop in Greece after nearly 11 months at sea, the UK-based news outlet International Business Times reported.
Two sailors were initially reported injured in a fire in the ship’s main laundry room while it was in the Red Sea to support the ongoing ‘massacre’ against Iran, and a third was later evacuated for better care.
The fire was later described by US Central Command as ‘non-conflict-related and under control’. It did not say what caused the fire; Investigators are now working to fill that gap.
At sea for 11 months
The Gerald Ford was scheduled to deploy to the U.S. European Command in mid-2018. But in October, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth abruptly ordered the ship to the Caribbean to support Operation Southern Spear against Venezuela.
The crew was told in the second week of February, after the kidnapping of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, that they would be able to return home in early March. But within 12 hours, the order was changed. The ship was sent to the Mediterranean, then the Red Sea, to support the Israeli-American war against Iran.
The deployment could last up to 11 months, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Admiral James Kilby told the Senate Armed Services Committee; No warship has spent that long at sea since the Vietnam War.
The record for the longest deployment since the Vietnam War is currently held by the USS Abraham Lincoln, at 294 days. The Ford had been deployed for 262 days when it caught fire on March 12; if it had continued until early May, it would have reached nearly 330 days, rivaling the record set by a warship deployed in the Gulf of Tonkin during the war.
But the dangers of such long periods of unpreparedness were already well-documented, as Admiral Daryl Caudle, the head of Naval Operations, warned at the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium in January.
“I’m not a fan of extensions. First of all, I’m a sailor-first CNO (Chief of Naval Operations). People want some certainty before they go on a seven-month deployment. When that period of time passes, it disrupts their lives. Funerals, weddings, having children, everything,” he told reporters.
But those objections have not been heeded.
Rear Admiral Paul Lanzilotta, commander of U.S. Carrier Strike Group Twelve, also acknowledges that extended sea travel can have a profound impact on sailors’ mental health.
“The fatigue builds up and the burden of being away from home puts a strain on sailors. As leaders, it’s our responsibility to make sure they’re supported — that they have all the services they need while they’re on the ship, that they have clear communication, that they have regular discussions,” Lanzilotta said in a statement in February.
“They’re exhausted. The fire must have taken a toll on their morale,” the parent of a sailor aboard the Gerald R. Ford told National Public Radio (NPR) after the fire broke out.
Already Stressed Warship
The sabotage investigation didn’t start out of thin air. For months, the Gerald R. Ford had been showing signs of some serious technical and human stress, which is now intertwined with the fire investigation.
The most widely reported problem is a malfunction in the ship’s sewage disposal system (VCHTS). The General Accountability Office called the system undersized and flawed in design in 2020. Since its last deployment, the system has received an average of one complaint per day requesting repairs, according to the International Business Times.
The Gerald R. Ford has requested outside help 42 times since 2023, 32 of which were in 2025. An internal email seen by NPR The sewage system was reported to have failed 205 times in four days. Its narrow pipes were found to be clogged with objects like T-shirts and four-foot-long pieces of rope.
A March 17 NPR report quoted John Cordle, a recently retired Navy captain and human resources engineer who has studied fatigue in sailors at sea. Cordle compared the fire to the Harry S. Truman, which was deployed in the Red Sea in 2025. The Harry S. Truman lost an F/A-18 fighter jet at sea.
“There’s a difference between a can-do attitude and a get-it-done attitude. “Weary sailors often try to dodge,” he said.
If investigators are certain that the Gerald R. Ford fire was caused by sabotage, it would be reminiscent of the July 2020 fire on the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomie Richard in San Diego Harbor, which injured 63 sailors and forced the ship to be completely abandoned.
The investigation also found a lack of preparation and training to contain the fire. Airman Ryan Maze, a trainee, has been formally charged with arson.
