US warship loses power and toilets in South China Sea – CNN

A US Navy destroyer spent four days without power in the South China Sea last month, depriving its crew of hot meals, flushing toilets, and air conditioning, CNN has reported. The report comes as US sailors in the Persian Gulf are facing similar conditions.

The USS Benfold, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, suffered an “engineering casualty involving its generators” while on an exercise in the South China Sea last month, a Navy spokesman told CNN on Monday.

The Benfold lost the ability to maneuver on its own, and lost galley services, toilets, air conditioning, and drinking water, the spokesman said. At the time of the incident, temperatures in the South China Sea averaged between 32 and 37 degrees Celsius.

Another US warship, the guided missile cruiser USS Robert Smalls, provided hot meals to sailors aboard the Benfold, before it was towed to the Philippines for repairs. The Benfold has since returned to duty.

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The Benfold usually sails as part of the USS George Washington’s carrier strike group. At the time of the breakdown, the group was conducting a so-called ‘freedom of navigation’ exercise in the region – in which US warships sail through China’s exclusive economic zone in a show of defiance against Beijing’s maritime claims.

The USS George Washington has since been ordered to redeploy to the Persian Gulf to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln, whose crew have been at sea for almost nine months. Conditions on board the Abraham Lincoln have deteriorated, with toilets reportedly out of order, food running short, and multiple sailors attempting suicide. 

A photo circulating on social media last week suggested that frustrated sailors were writing anti-Israel messages on the wings of the Lincoln’s aircraft, including “be a good goy and do what Israel tells you to,” and “Bibi’s cucks.”

The Pentagon already rotated one aircraft carrier – the USS Gerald R. Ford – out of the Persian Gulf after it suffered repeated malfunctions, including a fire in its laundry room and the overflow of raw excrement from its toilets. The Ford, which is the only vessel in its class and the most advanced aircraft carrier in the US Navy’s fleet, is now undergoing repairs at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, and is expected to be out of commission for around a year.