00:27Two of America's most
00:29powerful warships, both out of action, both hit by fires within months of each other.
00:35One was deployed in the Red Sea, Iran's backyard. The other had just come back from the same war
00:42zone. So the question everyone's asking, and nobody in the Pentagon wants to answer directly,
00:48was this an accident or was this something else? Let's start with the bigger of the two incidents.
00:54March 12, 2026. The USS Gerald R. Ford, America's most advanced aircraft carrier,
01:02a $13 billion warship, is operating in the Red Sea. A fire breaks out in the ship's main laundry
01:09facilities. Now, before you think laundry room, how bad could it be? Here's the answer. Bad.
01:15Really bad. It took 30 hours to extinguish. 30 hours of sailors fighting fire aboard a vessel
01:23packed with jet fuel, munitions, and aviation systems. Over 200 sailors needed medical attention
01:30for smoke inhalation. More than 600 were displaced from their sleeping quarters,
01:35their bunks destroyed or rendered uninhabitable by smoke and water damage. The carrier had to halt
01:41operations entirely and limp to Saudi Bay in Crete for emergency repairs. The Ford wasn't on a routine
01:49cruise. This was a nearly 10-month deployment, one of the longest in recent memory. Sailors were already
01:56reportedly exhausted, morale was described as low, and the ship had been dealing with sewage system
02:02problems before the fire even broke out. The official cause? Under investigation. Fast forward to April
02:092026. Now it's the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower's turn. The Ike, as sailors call her, had spent nine months
02:17deployed to the Red Sea in 2023, defending against relentless waves of drone and missile attacks
02:23launched by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. She came home and went straight into maintenance at Norfolk
02:29Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia. And then, a fire breaks out aboard her too. Three sailors were
02:36injured. The fire was contained and extinguished quickly this time. The ship's crew and shipyard
02:42personnel responded fast. The three sailors were treated and returned to duty. But the cause?
02:47Again, under investigation. Origin point? Unclear. Okay, so now let's talk about Iran. Does Iran have
02:55both the motive and the capability to pull something like this off? But, and this is important, there is
03:02currently no evidence that either fire was caused by Iranian action, sabotage, or enemy interference of
03:09any kind. What Iran has done recently, and openly, is arm and direct the Houthis in Yemen, who fired
03:16dozens of missiles and drones at U.S. Navy vessels in the Red Sea throughout 2023 and 2024. Those attacks
03:24were real, documented, and ongoing. Could a foreign actor have exploited those vulnerabilities?
03:31Theoretically. Has anyone produced evidence of that? No. The investigations are ongoing.
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