Sailor Who ‘Hated’ Navy Torched $1.2B Assault Ship: Warrant

[+GKABS 8,737]

A 20-year-old sailor with a grudge against the U.S. Navy and a failed attempt at becoming a Navy SEAL under his belt is accused of setting an amphibious assault ship ablaze and singlehandedly costing the Navy $30 million in damage.

According to an NCIS search warrant affidavit obtained by The Daily Beast, Ryan Sawyer Mays aroused the suspicions of investigators almost immediately after the 40,000-ton USS Bonhomme Richard went up in flames on July 12, 2020, burning for nearly five days and leaving dozens injured while extinguishing the ferocious blaze.

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[Wrench 9,841]

i hope they throw the fucking book at him. we need to bring back keelhauling for shitbirds like that

[macelena 1,070]

Treason anyone? If he was about to burn it down either way, at least he could have been bribed by some foreign "adversary". I wonder what the legalese is for defining the damages as "30 million", they had to decomission the whole damned ship. 

[+Gunrunner 314]

Isn't that still punishable by death ? Lives could have been lost. It's an unredeemable level of ass-hatery, this kind of piece of trash has no place in civilian life either.

[+Gepard 11,275]

See the positive side of the story. He tested the vulnerability of the ship. And how it seems, the USS Bonhomme Richard is as vulnerable against fire as it was HMS Sheffield during Falkland War.

What means, back to drawing board!

[+Nightshade/PR 7,925]

And now, The Rest Of The Story.

Navy probe finds major failures in fire that destroyed ship (apnews.com)

[+daddyairplanes 10,219]

ah, blame a sailor. then realize there was much bigger problems

the classic game

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iowa_turret_explosion

[Capitaine Vengeur 263]

It reminds me rather of the USS Miami Fire in 2012: also a moron dissatisfied with own's life who put fire to a warship worth 1 billion, and damaged her beyond repair. Not a seaman that time, right, but hey, why should a hostile foreign power spend billions to maintain a force able to challenge the US Navy, when they can just let the US Navy recruiters enlist any wretch passing by just to meet their quota,  then let the First Navy destroy herself? So bad for the average US taxpayer, so good for some people on the opposite side of the Pacific...

Quote from the article:  The crew was slammed for “a pattern of failed drills, minimal crew participation, an absence of basic knowledge on firefighting” and an inability to coordinate with civilian firefighters.  Compare that waste with the USS Forestal Fire in 1967: there, also an incredible pile of mistakes from the Navy, and a crew barely trained in firefighting. Yet they did their duty, fought bravely anyway, and saved their ship and the day, in spite of the High Staff's and self-centered Boards' general incompetence. The Greatest Generation is dead, buried, and forgotten since long for sure. 

Edited October 22, 2021 by Capitaine Vengeur

[+Nightshade/PR 7,925]

Having been a SNCO in the military, I understand that a breakdown in....well, everything, as this abbreviated Navy article states, can lead to disaffected personnel doing unforgivable things, and they should not be excused for their actions. But I cannot fathom the rush to judgement on this one man, regardless of his alleged actions, for the loss of an entire ship. Damage, yes.....but I simply cannot see where this one thing made the entire ship's destruction possible, given the initial report. There were SO many things that had to go wrong, the investigation is by no means over, and like many, that report led me to suspect there were a cascade of failures running way beyond one individual that would contribute to this. And there were.

Hold all the individuals that were at the core of this disaster responsible when you have ascertained with a large degree of certainty just who is to be held responsible. But JFC, don't disparage the entire service for a command breakdown that happens in EVERY military all over the world. Some just never make the news.

I may rag the sister service unmercifully on occasion (I was Air Force, so screw them mop-heads), but they aren't all a collection of disgruntled ne'er do-wells looking for a free meal. (That's the Marines )

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2021/10/19/uss-bonhomme-richard-fire-spread-wildly-due-to-repeated-failures-investigation-finds/

[+daddyairplanes 10,219]

cant speak for the Navy in 1989 (when the Iowa turret blew and they tried to pin it on one Sailor rather than admit several unauthorized things were going on)

but in the late 90s commands always seemed quick to pin it on one person if they could. relieved damn near if it actually stuck.

it only got worse (as far as commanders and very senior NCOs of the E-8/E-9 persuasion go) over twenty years.

i had a CPT maintenence officer in Kosovo. we had an inspection on the vehicles from Division, and everyone thankfully passed.

everyone but Battalion Maintenence, all of whose trucks and M88 were deadline.

while i wasnt a NCO at the time (hell, i wasnt even maintenence, just attached since cooks had no job), i was there when he was told.

you could see him get pissed in his face for about 30 seconds. we braced ourselves. then he said calmly,

"How do we fix it?"

that in my opinion was one of the finer examples of leadership in 21 years i witnessed. i can not imagine it being common today.

[+Nightshade/PR 7,925]

After all the calls for blood & vengeance, it's interesting that there has been no mention of this. 

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/ryan-mays-bonhomme-richard-fire-not-guilty/

Edited October 1, 2022 by Nightshade/PR

[jhostin 3]

If the prosecution was relying on a BATF investigation, they'd lost the case before the first day of court.

_{ShowBox Tutuapp Mobdro}

Edited October 24, 2022 by jhostin