The Navy revealed that one of the ships it deployed to support the mission of building a pier to deliver aid to starving residents in Gaza was forced to turn back last week after it suffered a fire in its engine room.
The incident comes as the Pentagon's self-imposed deadline of having the pier operational and delivering the needed aid by May rapidly approaches, and experts say there are other delays and problems cropping up with the mission.
The USNS 2nd Lt. John P. Bobo “experienced a fire in the engine room while in transit to the eastern Mediterranean Sea” on April 11, and while the crew evacuated the area and used portable extinguishers to put out the fire, the ship had to return to Jacksonville, Florida, using just one engine, “for further assessment,” according to a Navy statement provided Wednesday.
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When the Pentagon first announced the plan to use the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS, platform to construct the pier that would serve as a way to quickly deliver large amounts of aid to war-torn Gaza in early March, spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said the pier would be operational in the next 60 days.
Shortly after that announcement, a group of five Army ships left for the Mediterranean, followed by the MV Roy P. Benavidez, a military sealift command vessel that was carrying “heavy equipment and material needed to…
