The thousands of sailors and other personnel on the $6.2 billion USS George H.W. Bush, the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, have a problem when nature calls.
The carrier, named for the 41st U.S. president, has 130 bathrooms, or heads, with 423 commodes, but rarely are all of the toilets working. On at least two occasions, not a single one was in operation, according to published reports.
"Sailors tell of combing the ship for up to an hour to find a place to do their business, if they can find one at all," the Navy Times reported. "Others have resorted to urinating in showers or into the industrial sinks in their work stations. Some men are using bottles and emptying the contents over the giant ship's side, while some women are holding it in for so long that they are developing health problems, according to sources on the ship."
Some sailors blame a faulty vacuum system that flushes waste through 250 miles of pipe, according to The Virginia-Pilot newspaper. If something clogs the vacuum it can cause half the ship's toilets to fail at once.
That means sailors who have to go are left squirming in search of relief. Some of the carrier's 6,000 personnel reportedly are risking illness, such as dehydration and urinary tract infections, by trying to limit food and fluid intake.
In a statement, the Navy said it has spent more than 10,000 man hours trying to fix recurring problems and most issues with toilets are resolved within 24 hours.
The Navy, which didn't address the health issues, also said part of the problem is "inappropriate material or items" being flushed down toilets.
Petty Officer 1st Class Richard Frakes, an aviation mechanic whose mother, Mary Brotherton, was so angry about the problem that she flooded the news media with letters, told The Virginia Pilot via email that the problem also has affected morale and job performance.
"It definitely affects my morale," Frakes told the Pilot. "When I was unable to relieve myself for two days, I was irate to say the least."
The 1,092-foot, 20-story USS George H.W. Bush, which took Northrop Grumman eight years to build, is the last of the Nimitz class of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. It is based at the Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia.
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