Donald Trump’s Navy is facing renewed scrutiny after a warship lost all power while deployed in the South China Sea, stranding sailors without drinkable water, food, air conditioning or working toilets for four days.
A generator failure aboard the USS Benfold on July 24 left the destroyer without power.
Other Navy ships were called in to provide meals to the crew as the Benfold was towed to port in the Philippines, where sailors were put up in shore housing.
Full power was not restored until July 30 and no injuries have been reported.
The Navy did not disclose the incident for nearly a month, according to The Washington Post.
The outage comes as the Trump administration faces criticism over extended carrier deployments in the Middle East, including that of the USS Abraham Lincoln, where reports of desperate sailors throwing themselves aboard have angered military families.
Navy families have described collapsing morale and suicidal ideation on the ship, with one sailor’s wife telling Navy Times her severely burned-out husband attempted to jump overboard.
The Benfold was part of the USS George Washington’s strike group, which is currently en route to the Middle East to relieve the Lincoln.