Another fiasco has struck a Navy warship as a guided-missile destroyer lost power for four days in the middle of one of the most tense maritime zones on Earth while President Donald Trump has downplayed worrisome conditions for sailors serving at sea, according to reports on Monday.
Military service members aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold spent four grueling days without working toilets, potable water, hot meals and air conditioning as the ship baked in the brutal South China Sea heat after a total power failure, The Daily Beast reported.
The warship, which was built 30 years ago to shoot down enemy aircraft, sink enemy ships and hit targets on land, was in the middle of standard patrols in the Indo-Pacific when its generators gave out, Navy Cdr. Matthew Comer, a spokesperson for the 7th Fleet, told CNN.
“There were no injuries to the crew, who demonstrated resilience, grit, professionalism, and unwavering steadiness in their response,” Comer said.
The power outage has remained under investigation.
Former Navy captain Carl Schuster told CNN about his experience on a destroyer that lost power near Puerto Rico, which went dead in the water for about four hours. He explained what conditions would have been like for the crew on the USS Benfold.
“It would have been quite stressed. Operations officers were worried about crew morale and operational concerns, the engineers were focused on how to solve it, and the navigator was worried about the direction they were drifting and what weather was coming,” Schuster said.
“I can assure you four hours in the waters southeast of Puerto Rico is not nearly as stressful as four days in the South China Sea,” Schuster explained.
Beijing claims vast stretches of those waters as its own — a claim Washington rejects.
The Navy reportedly scrambled to keep its crew fed, sending the guided-missile cruiser USS Robert Smalls to deliver hot meals while other vessels from the Japan-based USS George Washington Carrier Strike Group pitched in to help, according to The Beast. Eventually, the crippled destroyer had to be towed to the Philippines, where repairs weren’t finished until Aug. 8.
This isn’t the only disaster to hit a Navy warship. It’s the second Pacific Command destroyer this year to go dark. In May, the USS Higgins lost power and propulsion for hours in the Indo-Pacific after what the Navy vaguely described as an “engineering casualty” in its electrical system.
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