Thread by @CavasShips

#CNO Gilday held a brief 15-minute press conference in San Diego Friday afternoon after visiting the severely-damaged USS #BONHOMME RICHARD LHD6. Excerpts from his remarks: "I went four decks below the flight deck, I took a look at the superstructure. I was able to get a ...

"good sense of the extent of the damage. And the damage is extensive. There is obviously electrical damage, structural damage, mechanical damage that we need to assess in much more detail before we make a final determination of next steps.
I am 100 percent confident that our...

"defense industry can put this ship back to sea. Having said that the question is should we make that investment in a 22-year old ship. I’m not going to make any predictions until we look at all the facts....We really thought we had this fire under control, had the potential...

"to have the fire under control and out as early as Sunday night.
There are two things that struck me as I walked through the ship as major impediments to that happening. First was the wind coming off the bay. This fire probably couldn’t have been in a worse point on the ship..

"in terms of the source that allowed it to spread up elevator shafts as an example, up exhaust stacks as an example, to take that fire up into the superstructure and then forward.
I also think that the series of explosions on the ship – I’m told that one in particular ...

"could be heard 13 miles away – were also significant factors that caused the commanding officer, who was really looking at safety first, he needed to save the ship, he needed to balance that with the safety of the firefighters. So there are times when he had to back those...

"firefighters off the ship.
At one point the explosion was so great it blew debris across the ship, across the pier and onto the ship that was across the way.
So I think the situation was very tenuous. The commanding officer made some very sound decisions in terms of ...

how to attack the fire very deliberately. The teamwork involved from a number of different agencies I think belies the fact that the training we do on a recurring basis pays off in an incident like this... We’ve not seen a fire of this magnitude in a Navy ship in recent memory..

"and at least in my career. So very extensive in terms of the damage and intensity." As for the investigations, "We will follow the facts as they happened here, we’ll be honest with ourselves, and we’ll get after it as a Navy." [top image via CBS8 San Diego]