Garrison Davis

In fact, I still think that's pretty close to impossible, at least with the technology we know they have.

but they don't need to sink one to render it inoperable.

Just hitting the top of it could be enough to do serious damage that would render it combat incapable for an extended period of time.

And to back me up on that point, a few weeks ago, while it was actively engaged in combat operations against Iranian forces, a fire started on board the Jerry Ford.

It began in the laundry room, or at least in an area related to the vast laundry system that a vehicle like this has.

kind of a little unclear exactly what happened.

According to the New York Times, though, the fire alone took 30 hours to put out.

Now, the Navy disputes this, that the ship was burning for more than a day, but they provided no reason anyone should actually trust them here.

I found an article published in the National Interest by Peter Susio.

He writes that, quote, the fire caused far greater damage than was initially reported, with one sailor medically evacuated from the ship and 200 more treated for smoke inhalation.

I'm not surprised that the Navy wanted to hide the extent of the damage its biggest warship suffered due to a laundry fire, but this reinforces how unreliable the Navy is as an ongoing source in these matters.

Sucio notes, "...there remain conflicting accounts of the fire in the media, and the Pentagon seemingly attempted to downplay the severity of the fire in the immediate aftermath, leading to later confusion."

What we do know is that the Ford, a small city on the sea, lost all ability to launder clothing, bedding, and anything else.

This caused an immediate hygiene issue aboard and a logistic nightmare for the Navy, which had to fly in clean clothing at terrific expense.

Saying a supercarrier was taken out of commission by a laundry fire sounds silly, but you can't keep a town of 4,500 people going if no one can do the laundry.

The fire seems to have also done extensive damage to crew living quarters, which forced 1,000 mattresses to be flown in while the crew slept, well, wherever they were sleeping.

It wasn't in their bunks.

Now, we don't know how the fire started again, but unconfirmed reports have blamed sabotage by members of the Gerald Ford's crew.

I can't tell you if this is true or not, but if it is, it would not be the first time something like this happened.

In 2012, a civilian contractor started a fire aboard the USS Miami and attacked submarine because he wanted to leave work early.