*Alicia Key’s “This ship(girl) is on fireeee” plays in the background*
I mean we’ve all heard gamers rage quitting when they don’t win or fail to complete a mission and this usually involves throwing the controller or using some pretty indecent language for the fellow players. But if you’re a sailor who allegedly set a ship on fire because you hate the navy, well then, the consequences are a little bit different.
A 20-year-old sailor by the name of Ryan Sawyer Mays failed his US Navy SEAL training and instead of taking it like a champ and trying again after some time, he now stands accused of setting fire to a $1.2 billion amphibious assault ship. The fire lasted for about five days and cost about $30 million dollars in damage to the Navy, not to mention the dozens of sailors who got injured while trying to extinguish the flames.
The US Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) was quick to investigate and interviewed the 177 sailors that were assigned to the ship at the time of the incident. One sailor came forward and reported that he saw a person in overalls and face mask who looked a lot like Mays carrying a bucket go to the lower level at the end of the ship. Another reason why the sailor was so sure it was Mays was that he heard him saying “I love deck”, a catchphrase used by Mays all the time. It was also reported that Mays was really frustrated after failing his Navy SEAL test and being reassigned as “undesignated Seaman”. “According to Navy leadership, the morale and behavior of sailors who had aspired to become a SEAL, and then find themselves serving in a more traditional role on a Navy ship, are frequently very challenging,” a search warrant affidavit read.
It was estimated that the repairs for the USS Bonhomme Richard would cost up to $3.2 billion which is twice the amount it cost to build the ship back in 1998 so it was decided to scrap the ship altogether.