President Donald Trump has announced a bold plan for the Navy to build a new, large warship that he is calling a “battleship” as part of a larger vision to create a “Golden Fleet.”
“They’ll be the fastest, the biggest, and by far 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built,” Trump claimed during the announcement at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
The ship, according to Trump, will be longer and larger than the World War II-era Iowa-class battleships and will be armed with hypersonic missiles, rail guns, and high-powered lasers — all technologies that are still being developed by the Navy.
Just a month ago, the Navy scrapped its plans to build a new, small warship, citing growing delays and cost overruns, deciding instead to go with a modified version of a Coast Guard cutter that was being produced until recently. The sea service has also failed to build its other newly designed ships, like the new Ford-class aircraft carrier and Columbia-class submarines, on time and on budget.
Historically, the term battleship has referred to a very specific type of ship — a large, heavily armored vessel armed with massive guns designed to bombard other ships or targets ashore. This type of ship was at the height of prominence during World War II, and the largest of the U.S. battleships, the Iowa-class, were roughly 60,000 tons.
After World War II, the battleship’s role in modern fleets diminished rapidly in favor of aircraft carriers and long-range missiles. The U.S. Navy did modernize four Iowa-class battleships in the 1980s by adding cruise missiles and anti-ship missiles, along with modern radars, but by the 1990s all four were decommissioned.
Trump has long held strong opinions on specific aspects of the Navy’s fleet, sometimes with a view toward keeping older technology instead of modernizing.
During his first term, he unsuccessfully called for the return to steam-powered catapults to launch jets from the Navy’s newest aircraft carriers instead of the more modern electromagnetic system.
He has also complained to Phelan about the look of the Navy’s destroyers and decried Navy ships being covered in rust.
Phelan told senators at his confirmation hearing that Trump “has texted me numerous times very late at night, sometimes after one (o’clock) in the morning” about “rusty ships or ships in a yard, asking me what am I doing about it.”
On a visit to a shipyard that was working on the now-canceled Constellation-class frigate in 2020, Trump said he personally changed the design of the ship.
“I looked at it, I said, ‘That’s a terrible-looking ship, let’s make it beautiful,’” Trump said at the time.
He said Monday he will have a direct role in designing this new warship as well.
“The U.S. Navy will lead the design of these ships along with me, because I’m a very aesthetic person,” Trump said.
Konstantin Toropin, Aamer Madhani, The Associated Press
China has recently commissioned its most advanced warship, the aircraft carrier CNS Fujian, which is considered to rival its United States counterpart, USS Gerald R. Ford.
Newsweek has emailed the U.S. Navy and the Chinese Foreign Ministry for comment.
Facing China’s growing naval threat, the U.S. maintains a fleet of 11 aircraft carriers, as required by federal law. Serving as the most visible symbol of U.S. military power, American aircraft carriers are regularly deployed overseas, particularly in the western Pacific, to signal Washington’s security commitment to regional allies and partners.
What To Know
One of the common features of the Gerald R. Ford and the Fujian is that both are the first aircraft carriers in their countries to be equipped with electromagnetic catapults, which allow them to launch heavier aircraft, thereby bolstering their combat power.
Like the older 10 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, which use steam-powered catapults to launch aircraft, the Gerald R. Ford, the first of the U.S. Navy’s newest generation of aircraft carriers, has installed four catapults across its flight deck, while the Fujian has three.
Another shared feature relates to carrier-based stealth aircraft. While the Gerald R. Ford is designed to operate F-35C fighter jets, it still requires modifications to support their long-term deployment, according to the military aviation website The Aviationist.
Official footage shows the Fujian can launch and recover J-35 fighter jets, which share design similarities with the F-35C aircraft. Both stealth jets—capable of evading radar detection—are regarded as the most advanced Chinese and U.S. naval combat aircraft.
However, the Fujian uses steam turbines with diesel generators for propulsion, the same as the two Chinese ski-jump style aircraft carriers, CNS Liaoning and CNS Shandong, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ ChinaPower project.
All American aircraft carriers in active service are nuclear-powered, allowing them to operate for long periods without refueling. The Gerald R. Ford can operate for 20 to 25 years before refueling its two nuclear reactors, which occurs only once in its lifetime.
While the Fujian is the largest warship China has ever built, with a displacement of more than 80,000 tons, it is still smaller than the Gerald R. Ford, which has a full-load displacement of 112,000 tons. Their respective lengths are 1,036 feet and 1,106 feet.
The difference in size allows the Gerald R. Ford to carry a larger aviation force, with more than 75 aircraft, including fighter jets and early warning aircraft, according to Reuters. The ChinaPower project estimates the Fujian can operate 50 to 60 aircraft.
The Gerald R. Ford is homeported on the U.S. East Coast at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, indicating it is usually deployed to the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Middle East via the Suez Canal, supporting U.S. forces in those regions.
The Chinese navy has confirmed that the Fujian will be the second aircraft carrier—after the Shandong—homeported at Yulin Naval Base near Sanya in Hainan province, north of the South China Sea, where China has territorial disputes with other countries.
The locations of their home ports mean the two aircraft carriers would not operate in the western Pacific at the same time. The U.S. has stationed another aircraft carrier, USS George Washington, in the region as part of its forward-deployed forces in Japan.
What People Are Saying
U.S. President Donald Trump said at USS Gerald R. Ford‘s commissioning ceremony in July 2017: “Wherever this vessel cuts through the horizon, our allies will rest easy and our enemies will shake with fear because everyone will know that America is coming and America is coming strong…Our true strength is our people. Our greatest weapon is all of you. Our nation endures because we have citizens who love America and who are willing to fight for America.”
Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday: “The Fujian, [China]’s first aircraft carrier with electromagnetic catapults and its third overall, was launched and named in June 2022. Its hull number is ’18.’ The Fujian was designed and built entirely independently by [China], and its electromagnetic catapult technology is among the world’s most advanced.”
The Pentagon’s Chinese military power report 2024 read: “Fujian is larger than the ski-jump carriers and fitted with an electromagnetic catapult launch system. This design enables it to support additional fighter aircraft, fixed-wing early-warning aircraft, and more rapid flight operations, thus extending the reach and effectiveness of the [People’s Republic of China]’s carrier-based strike aircraft.”
What Happens Next
It remains to be seen when the Fujian will conduct its maiden deployment. The Gerald R. Ford was deployed for the first time in 2022—five years after its commissioning—and is now operating in the U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility, which covers Latin America and the Caribbean, supporting counter-narcotics missions.
The United States and its treaty ally Japan recently conducted a submarine exercise as they continue to strengthen their defense posture amid China’s growing naval threat.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Why It Matters
China has the world’s largest navy by hull count, part of a military buildup meant to challenge U.S. military dominance and its allies in the western Pacific. Japan, which hosts about 60,000 American troops, plays a key role in the U.S. island chain strategy aimed at defending against potential Chinese aggression by projecting military power.
In a set of photos released on Monday by Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, a key U.S. military facility in Japan, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force submarine JS Unryu was seen docking at the base’s harbor for a resupply operation on October 27.
According to local media, it was the first time a Japanese submarine had visited Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni. The base said its harbor offered “multiple ports of entry” to U.S. and Japanese forces and that the operation demonstrated logistical capabilities.
The resupply operation was part of a larger joint exercise conducted by Japan’s Air, Ground and Maritime Self-Defense Forces from October 20 to 31, local media reported. The war game was held across the country, including at U.S. military facilities.
While pier-side at the base, the Unryu was loaded with torpedo-shaped test equipment. The move sought to verify whether resupply operations could be conducted at ports other than the submarine’s home port, expanding the scope of operations, the report said.
A Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force official told local media that the ability to resupply a vessel and get it back on deployment as quickly as possible was a significant advantage, particularly when U.S. military facilities are used instead of civilian ports.
Meanwhile, USS Hawaii, a Virginia-class fast-attack submarine, was spotted arriving at Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan on Sunday, a move confirmed by the local Japanese government. The U.S. nuclear-powered submarine remained at the base as of Friday.
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According to the U.S. Navy, the Hawaii is designed to conduct missions, including anti-submarine, anti-surface ship and strike warfare, as well as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The submarine is homeported at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
What People Are Saying
U.S. Pacific Submarine Force spokesperson Commander Rick Moore previously told Newsweek: “We are making historic investments in our undersea warfare capabilities and continue to work with allies and partners to maintain a secure, prosperous, free, and open Indo-Pacific.”
Japan’s 2025 defense white paper said: “China has been intensifying its activities across the entire region surrounding Japan, including in the East China Sea, particularly in the area around the Senkaku Islands, the Sea of Japan, and the western Pacific Ocean, extending beyond the so-called the first island chain to the second island chain.”
What Happens Next
It remains to be seen whether the U.S. will provide assistance if Japan moves forward with its nuclear-powered submarine program. U.S. President Donald Trump recently voiced support for South Korea’s development of nuclear-powered submarines.
Newly released photos show the United States is making progress on constructing a new dry dock at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to support its nuclear-powered submarine fleet in the Pacific Ocean amid a naval arms race with China.
Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, located within Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, said on Wednesday that Dry Dock 5 was more than one-third complete. It will replace a dry dock built in 1942 and will be used to service Virginia-class attack submarines and larger surface ships.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While at least 35Chinese shipyards have known ties to the country’s military or national security projects, the U.S. Navy operates only four public shipyards—built in the 19th and 20th centuries—including the one at Pearl Harbor, to maintain its combat ships, making it vulnerable in a conflict with China, the world’s largest navy by hull count.
What To Know
Photos shared by Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard on Facebook show the current progress of the construction of Dry Dock 5. The $3.42 billion project, began in August 2023, is scheduled for completion in 2027 and will support projected fleet maintenance requirements.
“The new dry dock will support the #Readiness and #Lethality of our U.S. Navy Fleet, ensuring our naval strength remains unmatched. [Dry Dock 5] is more than just steel and concrete, it’s a commitment to the future of naval #readiness,” the shipyard said.
A dry dock is designed to service a vessel’s hull. After floating a vessel into a three-sided basin, the seaward end is closed and all the water removed, allowing the vessel to settle on a cradle. When work is completed the basin is re-flooded and the seaward end opened to float the vessel out.
Once completed, Dry Dock 5 will be 657 feet long. It is being built next to the 497-foot Dry Dock 3, the smallest of the four dry docks at Pearl Harbor. Dry Docks 1, 2 and 4 are 1,001, 975 and 1,099 feet long, respectively, according to an official document.
The existing dry docks were built between 1919 and 1943. Dry Dock 5, designed for 150 years of use, is part of the Navy’s Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program (SIOP), which aims to expand shipyard capacity and improve maintenance capabilities.
Built during World War II, Dry Dock 3 lacks the size and floor strength needed to service Virginia-class submarines, Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard said. It will become “functionally obsolete” once older Los Angeles-class attack submarines are retired.
Both Virginia– and Los Angeles-class submarines are homeported at Pearl Harbor. The former, a next-generation attack submarine, is 377 feet long and has a displacement of 7,800 tons, while the latter, deployed since 1976, is 360 feet long with a displacement of 6,900 tons, according to the Navy.
What People Are Saying
Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard said in a Facebook post on Wednesday: “Dry Dock 5, now over 1/3 complete, is a critical investment in our ability to fix, repair, and maintain ships, keeping them #FitToFight for generations to come.”
The U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Pacific said in March 2023: “The Navy is investing heavily in shipyard infrastructure for nuclear-powered warships. The Navy established SIOP to increase throughput at the four public shipyards by updating their physical layout, upgrading and modernizing their dry docks, and replacing antiquated capital equipment with modern tools and technologies.”
What Happens Next
It remains to be seen how the U.S. will further boost maintenance for its Navy. Some American naval vessels have been serviced in U.S. ally South Korea, reducing downtime and costs and enhancing readiness by conducting maintenance in theater.
President Donald Trump on Friday afternoon denied any knowledge of a reported 2019 botched SEAL Team 6 operation in North Korea, telling a reporter who asked him for a reaction that he was “hearing it now for the first time.”
Newsweek reached out via email to the White House for clarification and further comment on Friday evening.
Why It Matters
The purported mission would evidence the U.S. failing to achieve an intelligence objective against a country with which officials had engaged in sensitive diplomatic talks.
The Pentagon and White House rarely—if ever—comment on any SEAL Team 6 missions.
The ostensible goal for the talks would entail steps toward a peace deal between North and South Korea, ending a decades-long tense standoff between the neighboring nations.
U.S. President Donald Trump, left, speaks as he stands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, south of the Military Demarcation Line that divides North and South Korea on June 30, 2019. U.S. President Donald Trump, left, speaks as he stands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, south of the Military Demarcation Line that divides North and South Korea on June 30, 2019. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
What To Know
The New York Times on Friday released a report on a 2019 operation to plant a listening device that would have allowed the United States to intercept communications from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a time when the U.S. was holding high-level nuclear talks with the Hermit Kingdom.
According to the Times, the operation did not pan out as planned once a boat started sweeping the water, prompting fears that the SEAL team had been spotted while heading for shore. The team opened fire, killing everyone on the boat, then retreating without completing the mission, per the report.
Due to the extreme sensitivity of the mission, the Times said, it would have required Trump’s direct approval.
When asked about the mission during a press briefing in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump said: “I don’t know anything about it.”
“I’d have to look, but I don’t know anything about it,” the president replied, adding, “I’m hearing it now for the first time.” The reporter had also asked if Trump had spoken with or engaged with North Korea since the purported incident, which he did not address.
The Pentagon provided Newsweek with “no comment” when reached via email on Friday afternoon.
The SEAL Team 6 Red Squadron—the same unit that killed Al-Qaeda founder and Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden—had been selected for the mission, and the team had practiced for months beforehand.
What Is SEAL Team 6?
SEAL Team 6 is the nickname given to the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, a component of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). The team often undertakes classified missions on which neither the Pentagon nor the White House will usually offer comment.
The group is the Navy’s equivalent of the Delta Force, emerging to prominent public notice in the aftermath of bin Laden’s killing.
Journalist Sean Naylor, national security reporter for 20 years at Army Times, in 2015 published a book detailing the history of JSOC and some of its missions, like a 2008 mission during which SEAL Team 6 launched a raid from Afghanistan into Pakistan to find Al-Qaeda leaders.
The Times also covered the release of the book, which has proved the most comprehensive, if unauthorized, look at the operations of a team that has “engaged in combat so intimate that they have emerged soaked in blood that was not their own.”
“Around the world, they have run spying stations disguised as commercial boats, posed as civilian employees of front companies and operated undercover at embassies as male-female pairs, tracking those the United States wants to kill or capture,” the Times wrote.
Trump Sought Nuke Deal With North Korea
Trump, during his first administration, attempted to engage in the same kind of deal-making that he has touted throughout his second term. During those first four years, he notched some considerable wins—most notably, the Abraham Accords between Israel and several Middle East nations.
The president initially sought a nuclear weapons deal with North Korea, but settled for a 2018 signed joint statement, which laid out four goals for Kim to achieve: commit to establish new relations with the U.S.; build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula; commit to work toward a complete denuclearization of the peninsula; and recover POW/MIA remains and repatriate them.
The talks would have potentially proved a vital turning point in negotiations, but the coronavirus pandemic radically altered the trajectory of any such discourse. Once Trump left office, the possibility for any deal with the increasingly reclusive North Korea—which suffered greatly during the pandemic—turned more unlikely.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has announced a drive to mobilize over 8 million citizens, portraying the effort as a nationwide stand against rising pressure from the United States.
The sweeping call to arms, made on state TV, comes as President Donald Trump has been expanding American military operations in the Caribbean, including strikes against groups Washington links to Caracas.
Maduro framed the mobilization as essential to safeguarding sovereignty, casting Venezuela’s struggle as part of a broader resistance against U.S. power in Latin America.
Newsweek has reached out to the State Department and Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry for comment.
Why It Matters
The clash between Washington and Caracas has escalated beyond rhetoric, with military maneuvers, sanctions, and criminal designations transforming into a broader contest for regional dominance. Trump has tied Maduro’s government to narcoterrorist organizations while expanding U.S. deployments, and Caracas has responded by massing citizens into its defense structures.
At stake is whether the Caribbean becomes the stage for a direct confrontation between the United States and Venezuela, with ripple effects for Latin America and beyond.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro speaks during a press conference at Hotel Melia Caracas on September 01, 2025 in Caracas, Venezuela. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro speaks during a press conference at Hotel Melia Caracas on September 01, 2025 in Caracas, Venezuela. Jesus Vargas/AP Photo
What To Know
According to VTV, Venezuela will deploy 15,751 popular defense bases and 5,336 communal militia units across the country. These forces fall under the National Bolivarian Militia, a civilian reserve created by the late Hugo Chávez to integrate ordinary citizens into the country’s defense system. The militia operates alongside the armed forces but is designed to give local communities a direct role in national security.
Maduro said roughly 4.5 million citizens have already undergone training, with new enlistments through a digital platform expected to push the total beyond 8 million. He declared that Venezuela has the capacity to preserve peace “under all circumstances.”
Maduro denounced Washington for spreading “extremist currents and Nazi tendencies” that he said endanger South America and the Caribbean. He argued that Venezuela is defending not only itself but also the rights of peoples across the region.
Members of the Bolivarian Militia are seen in Caracas, Venezuela, on September 3, 2025. Members of the Bolivarian Militia are seen in Caracas, Venezuela, on September 3, 2025. Pedro Mattey/Getty Images
Rising U.S. Military Pressure
On August 28, acting on Trump’s orders, a U.S. naval group—including a submarine and seven warships—was deployed to the Caribbean, signaling Washington’s intent to expand operations near Venezuelan waters.
Soon after, U.S. forces carried out a strike in international waters against the Venezuelan-linked Tren de Aragua cartel, killing 11 alleged narcoterrorists. The gang has been designated a foreign terrorist organization, and Washington doubled its reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest or conviction, raising it from $25 million to $50 million.
Venezuelan Response
On Thursday, two Venezuelan fighter jets flew near a U.S. destroyer, a maneuver the Pentagon described as “provocative.” Defense officials warned Caracas against interfering with counter-narcotics and counter-terror missions, underscoring the potential for a direct clash between the two militaries.
What People Are Saying
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro: “We are facing extremist currents and Nazi tendencies from the north, which threaten the peace of South America and the Caribbean and continue to attack the rights of our peoples.”
President Donald Trump said on August 28: “Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists… TDA is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere.”
Alex Plitsas, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council told Newsweek: “The Venezuelan economy is in serious trouble despite being one of the wealthiest countries in South America. This is the result of the disastrous socialist policies Maduro and his predecessor implemented. The end result could range from voluntary policy changes to regime change and anything in between targeting the narcoterrorist groups.”
What Happens Next
As Maduro mobilizes millions and Trump escalates military operations, the U.S.-Venezuela standoff is entering a dangerous new phase. With both leaders doubling down, the Caribbean could emerge as the next arena of open confrontation.
(CNN) — The deployment of US warships in the Caribbean to counter drug-trafficking could simply divert the problem to the Pacific, experts in the region warn.
While much attention has focused on the political tension between the United States and Venezuela – even more so after a strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat on Tuesday – security specialists warn that the focus on Caribbean trafficking routes by American ships could have serious, unintended consequences for countries struggling to prevent drug flows on the Pacific corridor – such as Ecuador, Peru and Colombia.
“What’s going to happen is that, by blocking this Caribbean corridor, drug traffickers will avoid continuing to transport drugs through that route, because it’s more dangerous, and they’ll incur greater losses. They’ll redirect the flow of drugs,” former Ecuadorian Army Intelligence chief Mario Pazmiño told CNN.
Ecuador is one of the most violent countries in Latin America due to transnational organized crime and has the third-highest drug seizures after the United States and Colombia, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
Various drug trafficking routes operate from the South American country to Central America, the United States and Europe, where a series of Ecuadorian, Colombian, Mexican and European criminal networks converge.
Pazmiño thinks these routes will get only more popular with traffickers as the Caribbean routes are squeezed off.
“This flow of drugs will no longer leave through Colombia or Venezuela. They will try to use Ecuadorian ports, which are one of our country’s greatest weaknesses and through which drugs are constantly leaving,” he warned.
Indeed, Pazmiño believes this effect is already in play.
On August 25, Ecuador’s Guayaquil Port Authority declared a state of emergency due to rising insecurity and constant extortion threats, which it claims are putting the integrity of the port infrastructure and personnel at risk.
“The facilities of the Guayaquil Port Authority, as well as the personnel working there, are in imminent danger, given that threats have been made to kidnap the crew and pilots and attack vessels,” it said.
Pazmiño believes the situation is closely linked to the military tension in Caribbean waters, and shows the ability of transnational crime to divert its trafficking routes.
The Ecuadorian Navy recently reported that it has intensified its patrols and military operations against drug traffickers.
On August 24, authorities seized 10 tons of drugs with the help of the US Coast Guard, which is providing support under military agreements signed in 2023.
Traffickers ‘take advantage’ as threat to Maduro grows
Daniel Pontón, an expert in criminal policy and crime control at Ecuador’s Institute of Advanced National Studies, said that controlling the Pacific corridor was becoming a much more complex task.
“Drug traffickers know how to take advantage of any moment or vulnerability. Ecuador and other countries in the region need capabilities and cooperation. Joint action is required because the Navy’s capacity is limited,” Pontón added.
Meanwhile, Michelle Maffei, a researcher on international organized crime, conflict, and violence, warned that militarizing the fight against criminal gangs could have the opposite effect to what is intended.
“What this will force is another political conflict. It won’t be a strategy against organized crime. The United States is focused on the Maduro government (in Venezuela). While they’re focused on removing Maduro, the illegal and criminal economy will move more drugs, using semi-submersible vessels or contaminated containers with greater vigor, because they know their focus is on something else,” warns Maffei.
Maffei said authorities should instead focus on fighting corruption.
“We need to implement a radical reform of the judicial system in Ecuador. We have prosecutors who don’t work, judges who are bought off, and lawyers who are also bought off by organized crime groups. If this doesn’t happen in Ecuador, nothing good will come of it,” she added.
Pazmiño also had suggestions for how to combat the problem: “Strengthening the northern border with Colombia, creating a joint task force to cover the entire northern border and making it difficult and impossible for cocaine to spill into Ecuadorian territory.”
Even without increased drug flows, Ecuador is experiencing severe internal violence and recently reported record homicide numbers amid fighting between organized crime gangs. So far this year, the Ministry of the Interior has recorded 5,268 intentional homicides. In 2024, the year ended with 7,062 violent deaths. In 2023, there were 8,248.
The Daniel Noboa administration has called on the international community to support the fight against transnational crime.
But while the region’s eyes are focused on the Caribbean Sea, experts hope this will not lead to an increase in violence and mafia activity in the key areas of cocaine trafficking in the Pacific.
Two civilian U.S. Navy super visors were indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday for allegedly conspiring to cover up the size and severity of the May 6, 2021, that contaminated water for 93, 000 people and prompted a class-action lawsuit.
John Floyd, 63, of Mililani, who worked as Fuels Department deputy director for the Navy, and Nelson Wu, 38, of Waipahu who was Fuels Department supervisory engineer, were indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday.
Wu reported directly to Floyd. The pair allegedly redacted data sets, control room logs, tank inventory reports, tank level logs and transfer records.
A federal into the May 6, 2021, spill, and another 20, 000-gallon jet fuel spill on Nov. 20, 2021, have been on going since at least 2022.
Civilian and U.S. Department of Defense officials in charge of Red Hill operations during the fuel leaks have been testifying before the panel.
Floyd and Wu are charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S. and causing another person to make a materially false statement or a material omission in a matter within the jurisdiction of the executive branch of the federal government, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
The pair are summoned for an arraignment on Friday at 10 :30 a.m. before Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth J. Mansfield and are not in federal custody.
In October 2021, that the May 6, 2021, spill was due to a control room operator’s failure to follow correct procedures and not due to age of infrastructure, corrosion or the equipment condition.
Between May 6, 2021, and Oct. 1, 2021, Floyd and Wu worked in their roles for the Navy Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center Pearl Harbor, which included the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.
After 20, 000 gallons of jet fuel spilled on May 6, 2021, following the failing of two pipeline couplings, the state Department of Health issued a formal request for answers as part of its authorized role as a regulator of the facility.
On Oct. 1, 2021, the Navy responded to the state’s request for information and “Floyd and Wu participated in drafting the response to the RFI (request for information ) for review by Navy officers and transmission to the (state ).”
The Fuels Department was the main source of information for the response.
“When questioned about the accuracy of the May 6, 2021, spill volume data by multiple Navy officers involved in approving the response to the RFI, Floyd and Wu reiterated that only an estimated 1, 618 gallons had spilled into the tunnel and that the remainder of the jet fuel put into the JP-5 pipeline during the attempted transfer from Tank 12 had remained in the pipeline, ” according to the indictment.
Floyd and Wu intended the Navy to report to the state Department of Health a fuel release quantity for the May 6, 2021, jet fuel spill that “severely underreported the actual figure ” by supplying the Navy officers responsible for issuing a response to the state with a draft response that “contained materially inaccurate information and omitted information and records material to the questions and demands.” They also reassured “the Navy officers that their fuel release and capture quantities were accurate ” when questioned by the Navy officers, according to the indictment.
The Red Hill facility was built in the cavities of a mountain above an aquifer to conceal it from enemy attacks, according to the Navy and federal prosecutors. Construction occurred between 1940 to 1943 and included 20 steel-lined storage tanks.
Each of the cylindrical tanks was 100 feet in diameter and 250 feet tall with a storage capacity of approximately 12.5 million gallons, according to the federal court records.
The storage tanks, which were numbered 1 through 20, were connected by an approximately 2.5-mile pipeline system that ran through an underground tunnel adjacent to the tanks from just uphill of tanks 19 and 20 down to Pearl Harbor.
The water contamination, including a Nov. 20, 2021, spill of 20, 000 gallons, affected roughly 93, 000 people, mostly military families and civilians living in former military areas.
For months following the November spill, the state Department of Health issued an advisory that the water was unsafe to drink.
Thousands of families relocated to hotel rooms or moved out of their housing as the Navy and regulators worked to make the water safe to drink. The all-clear was declared in March 2022, about four months after the jet fuel contamination was found.
In March 2022, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the department would permanently shut down the Red Hill facility following the disaster.
The decision came amid withering pressure from state officials, the Hawaii congressional delegation, protests and extensive community opposition to keeping the under ground, World War II-era fuel facility in operation.
If convicted, Floyd and Wu face up to five years in federal prison and a fine up to $250, 000 on each charge.
This case is being investigated by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division, and the Environmental Protection Agency Office of the Inspector General.
On May 7, Senior U.S. District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi to 17 people affected by the Red Hill water crisis as part of ongoing consideration of civil complaints generated by the disaster.
Koba yashi ordered the government to pay $682, 258 to the plaintiffs to compensate them for damages and, in the case of some clients, for future medical care related to exposure to jet fuel that tainted the Navy’s Oahu water system.
The 17 “bellwether cases ” were selected from more than 7, 500 cases connected to the Red Hill fuel spill that are awaiting resolution. Two other related cases—one for military service members and one for more military families and civilians—also are pending in Hawaii’s federal court.
Last month, the Honolulu Board of Water Supply in connection to the jet fuel leaks.
In a nearly 100-page federal civil tort complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Hawaii, BWS says it’s suing the Navy “for negligence, nuisance, and trespass resulting in damages where the government of the United States of America, if a private party, would be liable to the BWS.”
BWS has estimated the cost of past, current and future impacts from the fuel leaks at $1.2 billion.
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE @STARADVERTISER.COM The tunnels of the the Red Hill Fuel Storage Facility in 2023.
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE @STARADVERTISER.COM The tunnels of the the Red Hill Fuel Storage Facility in 2023.
Two civilian U.S. Navy executives were indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday for lying to the Hawaii Department of Health about the size of the May 6, 2021.
John Floyd, 63, of Mililani, who worked as Fuels Department Deputy Director for the Navy, and Nelson Wu, 38, of Waipahu who was Fuels Department Supervisory Engineer were indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday. Wu reported directly to Floyd.
into the fuel spill have been ongoing since at least 2022.
Floyd and Wu are charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and causing another person to make a materially false statement or a material omission in a matter within the jurisdiction of the executive branch of the government of the United States, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
The pair are summoned for an an arraignment on Sep. 5 at 10 :30 before Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth J. Mansfield and are not in federal custody.
Between May 6, 2021 and Oct. 1, 2021, Floyd and Wu worked int heir roles for the Navy Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center Pearl Harbor, which included the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.
After 20, 000 gallons of on May 6, 2021 following the failing of two pipeline couplings, the Hawaii Department of Health issued a formal request for answers as part of their authorized role as a regulator of the facility.
On Oct.1, 2021, the Navy responded to the state’s request for information and “Floyd and Wu participated in drafting the response to the RFI (request for information ) for review by Navy officers and transmission to the (state ).”
The Fuels Department was the main source of information for the response.
“When questioned about the accuracy of the May 6, 2021 spill volume data by multiple Navy officers involved in approving the response to the RFI, Floyd and Wu reiterated that only an estimated 1, 618 gallons had spilled into the tunnel and that the remainder of the jet fuel put into the JP-5 pipeline during the attempted transfer from Tank 12 had remained in the pipeline, ” according to the indictment.
The water contamination included a Nov. 20, 2021 spill of 20, 000 gallons and affected roughly 93, 000 people, mainly military families. For months the state Department of Health issued an advisory that the water was unsafe to drink.
Thousands of families relocated to hotel rooms or moved out of their housing as the Navy and regulators worked to make the water safe to drink. The all-clear was declared in March 2022, about four months after the jet fuel contamination was found.
In March 2022, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the department would permanently shut down the Red Hill facility following the disaster. The decision came amid withering pressure from state officials, the Hawaii congressional delegation, protests and extensive community opposition to keeping the under -ground, World War II-era fuel facility in operation.
If convicted, Floyd and Wu face up to five years’ in federal prison and a fine up to $250, 000 on each charge.
This case is being investigated by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division, and the Environmental Protection Agency Office of the Inspector General.
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The U.S. Navy issued an apology Saturday for destroying an Alaska Native village nearly 150 years ago. The 1882 attack in Angoon killed six children and caused such dire food shortages that villagers starved themselves so children could eat.
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Shells fell on the Alaska Native village as winter approached, and then sailors landed and burned what was left of homes, food caches and canoes. Conditions grew so dire in the following months that elders sacrificed their own lives to spare food for surviving children.
It was Oct. 26, 1882, in Angoon, a Tlingit village of about 420 people in the southeastern Alaska panhandle. Now, 142 years later, the perpetrator of the bombardment — the U.S. Navy —has apologized.
Rear Adm. Mark Sucato, the commander of the Navy’s northwest region, issued the apology during an at-times emotional ceremony Saturday, the anniversary of the atrocity.
“The Navy recognizes the pain and suffering inflicted upon the Tlingit people, and we acknowledge these wrongful actions resulted in the loss of life, the loss of resources, the loss of culture, and created and inflicted intergenerational trauma on these clans,” he said during the ceremony, which was livestreamed from Angoon. “The Navy takes the significance of this action very, very seriously and knows an apology is long overdue.”
While the rebuilt Angoon received $90,000 in a settlement with the Department of Interior in 1973, village leaders have for decades sought an apology as well, beginning each yearly remembrance by asking three times, “Is there anyone here from the Navy to apologize?”
“You can imagine the generations of people that have died since 1882 that have wondered what had happened, why it happened, and wanted an apology of some sort, because in our minds, we didn’t do anything wrong,” said Daniel Johnson Jr., a tribal head in Angoon.
The attack was one of a series of conflicts between the American military and Alaska Natives in the years after the U.S. bought the territory from Russia in 1867. The U.S. Navy issued an apology last month for destroying the nearby village of Kake in 1869, and the Army has indicated that it plans to apologize for shelling Wrangell, also in southeast Alaska, that year, though no date has been set.
In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, commander of Navy Region Northwest, Rear Adm. Mark Sucato, is gifted a canoe paddle by Leonard John, Raven Clan, Native Village of Angoon, following the One People Canoe Society’s welcoming ceremony to kick off the annual Juneau Maritime Festival on May 4, 2024, in Juneau, Alaska.
Chief Mass Communication Spc. Gretchen Albrecht/U.S. Navy via AP
The Navy acknowledges the actions it undertook or ordered in Angoon and Kake caused deaths, a loss of resources and multigenerational trauma, Navy civilian spokesperson Julianne Leinenveber said in an email prior to the event.
“An apology is not only warranted, but long overdue,” she said.
Today, Angoon remains a quaint village of about 420 people, with colorful old homes and totem poles clustered on the west side of Admiralty Island, accessible by ferry or float plane, in the Tongass National Forest, the nation’s largest. The residents are vastly outnumbered by brown bears, and the village in recent years has strived to foster its ecotourism industry. Bald eagles and humpback whales abound, and the salmon and halibut fishing is excellent.
Accounts vary as to what prompted its destruction, but they generally begin with the accidental death of a Tlingit shaman, Tith Klane. Klane was killed when a harpoon gun exploded on a whaling ship owned by his employer, the North West Trading Co.
The Navy’s version says tribal members forced the vessel to shore, possibly took hostages and, in accordance with their customs, demanded 200 blankets in compensation.
The company declined to provide the blankets and ordered the Tlingits to return to work. Instead, in sorrow, they painted their faces with coal tar and tallow — something the company’s employees took as a precursor to an insurrection. The company’s superintendent then sought help from Naval Cmdr. E.C. Merriman, the top U.S. official in Alaska, saying a Tlingit uprising threatened the lives and property of White residents.
The Tlingit version contends the boat’s crew, which included Tlingit members, likely remained with the vessel out of respect, planning to attend the funeral, and that no hostages were taken. Johnson said the tribe never would have demanded compensation so soon after the death.
Merriman arrived on Oct. 25 and insisted the tribe provide 400 blankets by noon the next day as punishment for disobedience. When the Tlingits turned over just 81, Merriman attacked, destroying 12 clan houses, smaller homes, canoes and the village’s food stores.
Six children died in the attack, and “there’s untold numbers of elderly and infants who died that winter of both cold, exposure and hunger,” Johnson said.
Billy Jones, Tith Klane’s nephew, was 13 when Angoon was destroyed. Around 1950, he recorded two interviews, and his account was later included in a booklet prepared for the 100th anniversary of the bombing in 1982.
“They left us homeless on the beach,” Jones said.
Rosita Worl, the president of Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau, described how some elders that winter “walked into the forest” — meaning they died, sacrificing themselves so the younger people would have more food.
Even though the Navy’s written history conflicts with the Tlingit oral tradition, the Navy defers to the tribe’s account “out of respect for the long-lasting impacts these tragic incidents had on the affected clans,” said Leinenveber, the Navy spokesperson.
Tlingit leaders were so stunned when Navy officials told them, during a Zoom call in May, that the apology would finally be forthcoming that no one spoke for five minutes, Johnson said.
Eunice James, of Juneau, a descendant of Tith Klane, said she hopes the apology helps her family and the entire community heal. She expects his presence at the ceremony.
“Not only his spirit will be there, but the spirit of many of our ancestors, because we’ve lost so many,” she said.
LOWELL — The fall schedule of the Moses Greeley Parker Lecture Series begins Wednesday evening with Lowell native and retired U.S. Navy Adm. Michael Gilday serving as the keynote speaker and roundtable participant at UMass Lowell’s Comley-Lane Theatre at 6:30 p.m.
Gilday served as the 32nd chief of naval operations from 2019 to 2023. He has also served as naval aide to the president, and is a recipient of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Navy Distinguished Service Medal, four Defense Superior Service Medals, three Legion of Merit awards, a Bronze Star, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal and the Combat Action Ribbon.
“We are thrilled that Admiral Gilday has graciously accepted our invitation to be a part of the Parker Lecture Series,” said Parker Lectures Chair John Carson. “With his background as a native Lowellian and a distinguished career serving our country, he is exactly the type of speaker that Moses Greeley Parker had in mind when he started the trust in 1917. We are pleased to offer our audience the opportunity to interact with Admiral Gilday in a roundtable discussion.”
Gilday will participate in a panel discussion with Carson, City Manager Tom Golden and Mayor Daniel Rourke. After the panel, Gilday will deliver his keynote address, during which he said he will talk about the U.S. military by drawing on his experience in the Navy.
“I’ll talk about why I think it’s important for people to understand what we do, and why we do it,” Gilday said in a phone call Friday afternoon.
Gilday grew up in Lowell’s Centralville neighborhood as the oldest of five children, and said the city provided all five siblings “a fantastic foundation for the rest of our lives.”
“We all benefited from growing up in Lowell,” said Gilday.
Gilday now lives in Alexandria, Virginia after retiring last year, but he said he comes back to visit the Mill City once or twice a year as his mother and two of his siblings live in the region.
Following the keynote address, Gilday will engage in a Q&A session with the audience. Before the event on Wednesday, Gilday will also be bringing a younger sailor with him to the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Lowell and Lowell High School. He said it is “one thing for an old guy to talk about his experience in the Navy,” but he also wants the youth to be able to see and talk to someone about their experience much earlier in their naval career.
“We are incredibly honored to welcome Admiral Gilday back to Lowell,” Golden said in a statement Friday. “His extraordinary service to our nation and his deep connection to our city make this a truly special event. It’s not every day we get to hear firsthand from a leader of such stature, and I know our community will benefit greatly from his insights.”
Rourke said in a statement that Gilday “embodies the spirit of service that defines the city.”
“He has made Lowell proud on the world stage, and we look forward to hosting him for this event,” said Rourke.
UMass Lowell Chancellor Julie Chen said Gilday “has had a profound impact serving the U.S. Navy, our nation’s top leaders and the people of our country.”
“I look forward to hearing his views on leadership and the lessons he learned during an impressive and distinguished career in uniform,” Chen said in a statement.
Admission to the lecture is free for all, with a seating capacity of about 400.
The commander of a Navy destroyer that’s helping protect the San Diego-based aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Middle East has been relieved of duty about four months after he was seen in a photo firing a rifle with a scope mounted backward.
The image brought the Navy considerable ridicule on social media. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Cameron Yaste, commanding officer of the destroyer USS John McCain, was removed on Friday.
The Navy said Yaste was relieved of duty “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command the guided-missile destroyer” that’s currently deployed in the Gulf of Oman. The statement didn’t elaborate about why Yaste was replaced.
“The Navy holds commanding officers to the highest standards and holds them accountable when those standards are not met,” the Navy said.
In April, a photo posted on the Navy’s social media showed Yaste in a firing stance gripping the rifle with a backward scope.
The military news outlet Stars and Stripes reported that the Marine Corps took a dig at the Navy, sharing a photo on its social media of a Marine firing a weapon aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer. The caption read: “Clear Sight Picture.”
One user wrote on social media: “US Navy just killing it on Instagram,” with laughing and cringing emojis.
The post featuring Yaste was ultimately deleted. “Thank you for pointing out our rifle scope error in the previous post,” the Navy later wrote on social media. “Picture has been removed until EMI (extra military instruction) is completed.”
Yaste has been temporarily replaced by Capt. Allison Christy, deputy commodore of Destroyer Squadron 21, which is part of the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group that’s also in the Gulf of Oman.
The USS John S. McCain, under repair at a dry dock, is seen after a rededication ceremony for at the U.S. Naval base in Yokosuka, southwest of Tokyo, July 12, 2018.
Eugene Hoshiko / AP
The Pentagon sent the carriers to the Middle East to be in position should Israel need help repelling an attack by Iran or other countries, if such a thing happens, military officials said. Among other assignments, the USS John McCain has taken part in the efforts against Houthi attacks.
The Roosevelt is the flagship of a strike group that has recently included three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, $2 billion vessels that are designed to shield carriers from attacks by air, sea and land.
According to his Navy bio, Yaste has served also served as division officer aboard USS Bataan, weapons and executive officer aboard Patrol Coastal Crew Hotel, and combat systems and weapons officer aboard USS Hopper. The Knoxville, Tenn. native’s awards include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal. He graduated from The Citadel with a degree in history and later earned a Master of Science in astronautics.
Thousands of gallons of jet fuel contaminated the Navy’s drinking water system for Pearl Harbor. Families dealing with health issues sued, alleging they were harmed by negligence at Red Hill.
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This is an updated version of a story first published on April 28, 2024. The original video can be viewed here.
The U.S. military takes pride in protecting its own. That’s why military families we met in Hawaii told us they feel so betrayed.
Two years ago, there was a fuel spill close to the drinking water system at the Pearl Harbor base in Hawaii. As we first reported in April, Navy leadership assured thousands of military families that the tap water was safe.
But nearly two weeks after the spill, parents learned the truth: the water they drank or used to bathe their kids contained jet fuel.
Tonight – you’ll hear from some of the families who say the jet fuel tainted water made them sick. But first – we’ll go to where the water crisis at Pearl Harbor began.
From the air, the historic naval base is easy to spot. Eight miles from Honolulu… sparkling blue waters host battle gray ships…and memorials to those killed by Japan’s surprise attack in 1941.
What you can’t see is the once secret storage site that provided fuel for the Pacific fleet and its planes for 80 years.
Sharyn Alfonsi: It doesn’t look like much from the outside.
Vice Admiral John Wade: Wait ’till you get inside.
Vice Admiral John Wade led us through the Red Hill bulk fuel storage facility…seven miles of tunnels cut through volcanic rock – built to hold 250 million gallons of fuel.
Vice Admiral John Wade
60 Minutes
Vice Admiral John Wade: So this is one of the tanks.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Oh my gosh.
That black hole is a steel lined fuel tank so deep it’s hard to see the bottom 20 stories below.
Vice Admiral John Wade: To just show you how enormous this is, this tank holds 12.5 million gallons. And to give you kind of a reference point, the Statue of Liberty, not the base, but the statue itself, can fit in here with enough room.
And this is just one of the 20 tanks hidden here.
When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, construction was already underway to protect the Navy’s fuel reserves from an aerial attack.
Vice Admiral John Wade: The decision was made to embark on a herculean task to build a bulk storage fuel facility inside a mountain in secrecy.
Sharyn Alfonsi: And how long did that take to do?
Vice Admiral John Wade: It was a little less than three years. At its peak, there were about 4,000 men working here.
But this testament to American resolve became a monumental liability after this…
That’s jet fuel spraying from a cracked pipe. The video was recorded by a worker inside Red Hill on November 20th of 2021.
The fuel…20,000 gallons of it – was trapped in a plastic pipe. The weight caused the pipe to sag…this trolley hit it…
And jet fuel spewed for 21 hours….close to the well that supplied drinking water for 93,000 people on and around the base at Pearl Harbor.
Sharyn Alfonsi:According to Navy investigators, the workers who responded didn’t have the right tools to contain the spill. They also assumed there was no danger to the drinking water. They were wrong. At least 5,000 gallons of jet fuel drained into the tunnel floor and into the navy water system.
The next day the Navy issued a press release about the incident and told the 8,400 families living in military housing “…the water remains safe to drink.” Even though the Navy had not tested the water yet. A week later residents began to notice a problem.
Sharyn Alfonsi: When did you get this sense that there was something wrong with the water?
Brittany Traeger: My husband came into the kitchen and washed his hands and said, “Gosh, the water smells like I just did an oil change like, the water smells weird.”
Brittany Traeger
60 Minutes
Brittany Traeger lived on base…about two and half miles from Red Hill …with her daughter and husband, who is a Navy chief petty officer. Traeger says she began to feel sick a week after the spill.
Brittany Traeger: I had a cough. My tonsils were very swollen. I remember a very distinct moment where I was walking to the car and I had vertigo so bad that I had to hold onto the car.
Sharyn Alfonsi: The smell was that overwhelming?
Brittany Traeger: Uh-huh.
In an email to residents nine days after the spill, the commanding officer of the base reassured residents “…there are no immediate indications that the water is not safe. My staff and I are drinking the water…”
Sharyn Alfonsi: Did you stop using water? Did you stop taking baths?
Brittany Traeger: So, I did, my daughter did…
Sharyn Alfonsi: Just because you had a bad feeling, not ’cause anybody told you to.
Brittany Traeger: Correct. They gave us an email address that we could send an email to if we wanted to have our water tested. So, I emailed those people who then emailed me a phone number that I should call. And I called that phone number for days and it was just busy. They were overwhelmed and inundated with reports.
Ten days after the spill, there were more than 200 reports from six neighborhoods across the base of strong fuel odor coming from kitchen and bathroom faucets. But the Navy said its initial tests did not detect fuel.
Brittany Traeger: It defied logic, you know? Even though there was a leak and even though our water smelled like jet fuel and even though there was sheen on it, they continued to say, ” The tests are coming back negative.”
After 12 days…and four statements assuring residents the water was not contaminated with fuel…the Navy reversed course…on Dec. 2, 2021 it announced more comprehensive tests conducted by the Navy had detected jet fuel in the water.
Three weeks after the spill, tests from Hawaii’s Department of Health revealed jet fuel levels 350-times higher than what the state considers safe.
Richelle Dietz lives on base with her husband, a Navy chief petty officer….and their two children.
Richelle Dietz: Jet fuel’s not something that you would even think could happen to be in your water.
Sharyn Alfonsi: How were people reacting to the news?
Richelle Dietz: I was so sick to my stomach from that news that I actually threw up when I heard.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Because why?
Richelle Dietz: Because my kids had just been poisoned.
Richelle Dietz
60 Minutes
Within a month the Navy set up medical tents for residents. Some complained of stomach problems, severe fatigue and coughing. The military moved more than 4,000 families to hotels.
Small studies of military personnel suggest jet fuel exposure can lead to neurological and breathing problems.
But the long-term impact of ingesting jet fuel is unknown because it’sso unlikely to ever happen.
Richelle Dietz told us days after the spill her daughter’s tonsils became inflamed, and her son started suffering from chronic headaches.
Sharyn Alfonsi: I can hear people saying, “Tonsils, headaches. Kids get that stuff. How do you know it’s related?”
Richelle Dietz: Um, because they never had it before November of 2021. It wasn’t– an issue.
It’s unclear how many got sick. But of 2,000 people who responded to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – more than 850 sought medical care. The water system was flushed over three months…and bottled water brought in.
Brittany Traeger said her 4 year old now suffers respiratory problems which require hour-long treatments…at least two times a day that includes a nebulizer and this vibrating vest to clear her lungs.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Tell me about your daughter’s health.
Brittany Traeger: Thirteen days after the contamination, after our water smelled like jet fuel, my daughter woke up in a hotel with a cough…and it pretty much never went away.
Three months passed before Pearl Harbor’s drinking water was deemed safe again. The Navy’s own investigations into the spill…described quote “cascading failures” and revealed poor training, supervision, and ineffective leadership at red hill that fell “…unacceptably short of navy standards…”
The primary water supply for the city of Honolulu is 100 feet below the Navy complex.
In March of 2022, the secretary of defense ordered Red Hill permanently closed.
Vice Admiral John Wade was brought in to get the 104 million gallons of fuel out of the tanks and move it safely to sites around the Pacific.
Vice Admiral John Wade: We’ve gotta defuel. That’s the imminent threat. There’s ongoing and will be continued long-term environmental remediation to restore the aquifer, the land and surrounding area. And then there’s also a medical component for those that have been impacted.
Sharyn Alfonsi: You view now this thing that was a lifeline for the fleet is a threat.
Vice Admiral John Wade: That’s right. That’s right.
In six months, Wade’s team in Hawaii successfully removed almost all of the fuel. But it took two years before the Navy issued disciplinary letters to 14 officers involved in the spill response…including, five admirals.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Was anyone fired because of this?
Meredith Berger, an assistant secretary of the Navy
60 Minutes
Meredith Berger: At the time that the accountability came through, uh– we had officers that had already retired. And so uh — they had already separated from service.
Meredith Berger is an assistant secretary of the Navy. We met her at the Pentagon in November. She told us the Navy has been accountable.
Sharyn Alfonsi: We’re talking about 20,000 gallons of– fuel leak, 90,000 people had their water contaminated. It looks like people retired, or were reassigned, and no one was fired. How is that accountability?
Meredith Berger: It’s accountability within the system that we have established. And we have heard that this was too long, um and that maybe it didn’t go far enough.
Two thousand military families agree the Navy didn’t go far enough and are suing the government. The Traegers and Dietzs have joined the lawsuit alleging they were harmed by negligence at Red Hill.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Are you angry that it happened? Or are you angry at what happened after?
Richelle Dietz: It’s a little bit of anger, but it’s also this feeling of betrayal.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What do you mean, betrayal?
Richelle Dietz: So my husband has been in for almost 18 years. We have moved our family cross country, cross oceans. We gave so much of our life to the Navy for them to ignore warnings and then we were directly and blatantly lied to about it.
Navy leadership has apologized for the spill but has not said that the contaminated water is the cause of the ongoing illnesses.
The Navy did set up a clinic on base to collect data and treat anyone who believes they have health issues related to the tainted water.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What happens in five or 10 or 15 years? Will those services still be available to these families?
Meredith Berger: So that’s– that is part of why, um, we are making sure that we’re collecting that information to inform future actions and what the requirements are for those types of uh, needs and care.
Sharyn Alfonsi: That doesn’t sound like a guarantee of care in the future.
Meredith Berger: And I wanna be careful, ’cause I don’t do the health care part of things. And so I– I don’t wanna speak outside of, um, of– of where I have any authority or decision.
So we followed up with the Defense Department…which told us it’s reviewing the question of long term health care for military families…including more than 3,100 children.
Two years after the spill, some residents have reported water with a smell or sheen. The Navy is conducting daily tests at Pearl Harbor and says it is confident there is no fuel in the tap water.
Richelle Dietz is still using bottled water. She and Brittany Traeger along with the other military families are awaiting a judge’s decision in their lawsuit.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What is the remedy that you want?
Brittany Traeger: In our family it’s restoring my faith in our nation.
Sharyn Alfonsi: That’s a big thing to say.
Brittany Traeger: There’s a body of government that failed. They contaminated our water, they lied to us, they did not protect us, and they did not intervene. And accountability looks like a lifelong care plan for me, my family, and the people affected. And that will restore my faith in my nation.
Produced by Guy Campanile. Associate producer, Lucy Hatcher. Broadcast associate, Erin DuCharme. Edited by Michael Mongulla.
U.S. Navy fighter pilots came home to Virginia feeling relieved Friday after months of shooting down Houthi-launched missiles and drones off Yemen’s coast, in the most intense running sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II.
F/A-18 Super Hornets swooped over waiting families in a low formation before landing at their base in Virginia Beach. Dressed in green flight suits, the aviators embraced women in summer dresses and kids carrying American flags. Some handed red roses to their wives and daughters.
“We’re going to go sit down on the couch, and we’re going to try and make up for nine months of lost time,” Cmdr. Jaime Moreno said while hugging his two young daughters, ages 2 and 4, and kissing his wife, Lynn.
Clearing the emotion from his voice, Moreno said he couldn’t be prouder of his team and “everything that the last nine months have entailed.”
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier strike group, which includes three other warships, was protecting merchant vessels and allied warships under fire in a vital Red Sea corridor that leads to the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean.
“Honestly, it was completely unbelievable,” Lt. Cmdr. Charity Somma told CBS News. “I don’t think anybody on board that carrier strike group was expecting that to happen.”
Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have been attacking ships linked to Israel, the United States or Britain in what they say is a campaign to support the militant group Hamas in its war against Israel, though they frequently have targeted ships with no clear links to Israel or its supporters, imperiling shipping in a key route for global trade.
The U.S. and its allies have been fighting back: One round of fire in January saw F/A-18s from the Eisenhower and other ships shoot down 18 drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles and a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis.
U.S. Navy sailors have seen incoming Houthi-launched missiles seconds before they are destroyed by their ship’s defensive systems. Officials in the Pentagon have been talking about how to care for the sailors when they return home, including counseling and treatment for possible post-traumatic stress.
Cmdr. Benjamin Orloff, a Navy pilot, told reporters in Virginia Beach on Friday that most of the sailors, including him, weren’t used to being fired on, given the nation’s previous military engagements in recent decades.
“It was incredibly different,” Orloff said. “And I’ll be honest, it was a little traumatizing for the group. It’s something that we don’t think about a lot until you’re presented with it.”
But at the same time, Orloff said sailors responded with grit and resilience.
“What’s impressive is how all those sailors turned right around —and given the threat, given that stress— continued to do their jobs beyond reproach,” Orloff said, adding that it was “one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.”
When asked by CBS News if what they faced could be described as the most intense naval combat since Word World War II, Orloff called the description “pretty apt.”
“The close range that we were to the enemy, the fact that we were employing self-defense strikes,” Orloff said. “This was not long-range projection. This was…right in our face.”
Navy officials said the carrier strike group fired more than 400 air-to-surface missiles and 55 air-to-air missiles.
“We put a bomb down for every air surface engagement, and then a silhouette of airborne target for every air-to-air engagement that we had,” Orloff said.
The carrier strike group had left Virginia in mid-October. Its deployment was extended twice because of the importance of having a powerful carrier strike group, which can launch fighter jets at a moment’s notice, in the volatile region.
The months of fighting and extensions placed extra stress on roughly 7,000 sailors and their families.
Caitlyn Jeronimus, whose husband Keith is a Navy lieutenant commander and pilot, said she initially thought this deployment would be relatively easy, involving some exercises with other NATO countries. But then Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, and plans changed.
“It was going to be, if you could call it, a fun deployment where he’s going to get lots of ports to visit,” Jeronimus said.
She said the Eisenhower’s plans continued to change, which was exacerbated by the knowledge that there were “people who want to harm the ship.”
Jeronimus leaned on counselors provided by the Navy.
Her two children, aged 5 and 8, were old enough to understand “that daddy has been gone for a long time,” she said. “It was stressful.”
For months, the U.S. Navy has operated out of the Red Sea at a pace not seen in decades, as the military responds to Houthi targeting of commercial ships. Norah ’O’Donnell reports.
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Thousands of gallons of jet fuel contaminated the Navy’s drinking water system for Pearl Harbor. Families dealing with health issues are suing, alleging they were harmed by negligence at Red Hill.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
The U.S. military takes pride in protecting its own. That’s why military families we met in Hawaii told us they feel so betrayed.
Two years ago, there was a fuel spill close to the drinking water system at the Pearl Harbor base in Hawaii. Navy leadership assured thousands of military families that the tap water was safe.
But nearly two weeks after the spill, parents learned the truth: the water they drank or used to bathe their kids contained jet fuel.
Tonight – you’ll hear from some of the families who say the jet fuel tainted water made them sick. But first – we’ll go to where the water crisis at Pearl Harbor began.
From the air, the historic naval base is easy to spot. Eight miles from Honolulu… sparkling blue waters host battle gray ships…and memorials to those killed by Japan’s surprise attack in 1941.
What you can’t see is the once secret storage site that provided fuel for the Pacific fleet and its planes for 80 years.
Sharyn Alfonsi: It doesn’t look like much from the outside.
Vice Admiral John Wade: Wait ’till you get inside.
Vice Admiral John Wade led us through the Red Hill bulk fuel storage facility…seven miles of tunnels cut through volcanic rock – built to hold 250 million gallons of fuel.
Vice Admiral John Wade
60 Minutes
Vice Admiral John Wade: So this is one of the tanks.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Oh my gosh.
That black hole is a steel lined fuel tank so deep it’s hard to see the bottom 20 stories below.
Vice Admiral John Wade: To just show you how enormous this is, this tank holds 12.5 million gallons. And to give you kind of a reference point, the Statue of Liberty, not the base, but the statue itself, can fit in here with enough room.
And this is just one of the 20 tanks hidden here.
When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, construction was already underway to protect the Navy’s fuel reserves from an aerial attack.
Vice Admiral John Wade: The decision was made to embark on a herculean task to build a bulk storage fuel facility inside a mountain in secrecy.
Sharyn Alfonsi: And how long did that take to do?
Vice Admiral John Wade: It was a little less than three years. At its peak, there were about 4,000 men working here.
But this testament to American resolve became a monumental liability after this…
That’s jet fuel spraying from a cracked pipe. The video was recorded by a worker inside Red Hill on November 20th of 2021.
The fuel…20,000 gallons of it – was trapped in a plastic pipe. The weight caused the pipe to sag…this trolley hit it…
And jet fuel spewed for 21 hours….close to the well that supplied drinking water for 93,000 people on and around the base at Pearl Harbor.
Sharyn Alfonsi:According to Navy investigators, the workers who responded didn’t have the right tools to contain the spill. They also assumed there was no danger to the drinking water. They were wrong. At least 5,000 gallons of jet fuel drained into the tunnel floor and into the navy water system.
The next day the Navy issued a press release about the incident and told the 8,400 families living in military housing “…the water remains safe to drink.” Even though the Navy had not tested the water yet. A week later residents began to notice a problem.
Sharyn Alfonsi: When did you get this sense that there was something wrong with the water?
Brittany Traeger: My husband came into the kitchen and washed his hands and said, “Gosh, the water smells like I just did an oil change like, the water smells weird.”
Brittany Traeger
60 Minutes
Brittany Traeger lived on base…about two and half miles from Red Hill …with her daughter and husband, who is a Navy chief petty officer. Traeger says she began to feel sick a week after the spill.
Brittany Traeger: I had a cough. My tonsils were very swollen. I remember a very distinct moment where I was walking to the car and I had vertigo so bad that I had to hold onto the car.
Sharyn Alfonsi: The smell was that overwhelming?
Brittany Traeger: Uh-huh.
In an email to residents nine days after the spill, the commanding officer of the base reassured residents “…there are no immediate indications that the water is not safe. My staff and I are drinking the water…”
Sharyn Alfonsi: Did you stop using water? Did you stop taking baths?
Brittany Traeger: So, I did, my daughter did…
Sharyn Alfonsi: Just because you had a bad feeling, not ’cause anybody told you to.
Brittany Traeger: Correct. They gave us an email address that we could send an email to if we wanted to have our water tested. So, I emailed those people who then emailed me a phone number that I should call. And I called that phone number for days and it was just busy. They were overwhelmed and inundated with reports.
Ten days after the spill, there were more than 200 reports from six neighborhoods across the base of strong fuel odor coming from kitchen and bathroom faucets. But the Navy said its initial tests did not detect fuel.
Brittany Traeger: It defied logic, you know? Even though there was a leak and even though our water smelled like jet fuel and even though there was sheen on it, they continued to say, ” The tests are coming back negative.”
After 12 days…and four statements assuring residents the water was not contaminated with fuel…the Navy reversed course…on Dec. 2, 2021 it announced more comprehensive tests conducted by the Navy had detected jet fuel in the water.
Three weeks after the spill, tests from Hawaii’s Department of Health revealed jet fuel levels 350-times higher than what the state considers safe.
Richelle Dietz lives on base with her husband, a Navy chief petty officer….and their two children.
Richelle Dietz: Jet fuel’s not something that you would even think could happen to be in your water.
Sharyn Alfonsi: How were people reacting to the news?
Richelle Dietz: I was so sick to my stomach from that news that I actually threw up when I heard.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Because why?
Richelle Dietz: Because my kids had just been poisoned.
Richelle Dietz
60 Minutes
Within a month the Navy set up medical tents for residents. Some complained of stomach problems, severe fatigue and coughing. The military moved more than 4,000 families to hotels.
Small studies of military personnel suggest jet fuel exposure can lead to neurological and breathing problems.
But the long-term impact of ingesting jet fuel is unknown because it’sso unlikely to ever happen.
Richelle Dietz told us days after the spill her daughter’s tonsils became inflamed, and her son started suffering from chronic headaches.
Sharyn Alfonsi: I can hear people saying, “Tonsils, headaches. Kids get that stuff. How do you know it’s related?”
Richelle Dietz: Um, because they never had it before November of 2021. It wasn’t– an issue.
It’s unclear how many got sick. But of 2,000 people who responded to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – more than 850 sought medical care. The water system was flushed over three months…and bottled water brought in.
Brittany Traeger said her 4 year old now suffers respiratory problems which require hour-long treatments…at least two times a day that includes a nebulizer and this vibrating vest to clear her lungs.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Tell me about your daughter’s health.
Brittany Traeger: Thirteen days after the contamination, after our water smelled like jet fuel, my daughter woke up in a hotel with a cough…and it pretty much never went away.
Three months passed before Pearl Harbor’s drinking water was deemed safe again. The Navy’s own investigations into the spill…described quote “cascading failures” and revealed poor training, supervision, and ineffective leadership at red hill that fell “…unacceptably short of navy standards…”
The primary water supply for the city of Honolulu is 100 feet below the Navy complex.
In March of 2022, the secretary of defense ordered Red Hill permanently closed.
Vice Admiral John Wade was brought in to get the 104 million gallons of fuel out of the tanks and move it safely to sites around the Pacific.
Vice Admiral John Wade: We’ve gotta defuel. That’s the imminent threat. There’s ongoing and will be continued long-term environmental remediation to restore the aquifer, the land and surrounding area. And then there’s also a medical component for those that have been impacted.
Sharyn Alfonsi: You view now this thing that was a lifeline for the fleet is a threat.
Vice Admiral John Wade: That’s right. That’s right.
In six months, Wade’s team in Hawaii successfully removed almost all of the fuel. But it took two years before the Navy issued disciplinary letters to 14 officers involved in the spill response…including, five admirals.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Was anyone fired because of this?
Meredith Berger, an assistant secretary of the Navy
60 Minutes
Meredith Berger: At the time that the accountability came through, uh– we had officers that had already retired. And so uh — they had already separated from service.
Meredith Berger is an assistant secretary of the Navy. We met her at the Pentagon in November. She told us the Navy has been accountable.
Sharyn Alfonsi: We’re talking about 20,000 gallons of– fuel leak, 90,000 people had their water contaminated. It looks like people retired, or were reassigned, and no one was fired. How is that accountability?
Meredith Berger: It’s accountability within the system that we have established. And we have heard that this was too long, um and that maybe it didn’t go far enough.
Two thousand military families agree the Navy didn’t go far enough and are suing the government. The Traegers and Dietzs have joined the lawsuit alleging they were harmed by negligence at Red Hill.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Are you angry that it happened? Or are you angry at what happened after?
Richelle Dietz: It’s a little bit of anger, but it’s also this feeling of betrayal.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What do you mean, betrayal?
Richelle Dietz: So my husband has been in for almost 18 years. We have moved our family cross country, cross oceans. We gave so much of our life to the Navy for them to ignore warnings and then we were directly and blatantly lied to about it.
Navy leadership has apologized for the spill but has not said that the contaminated water is the cause of the ongoing illnesses.
The Navy did set up a clinic on base to collect data and treat anyone who believes they have health issues related to the tainted water.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What happens in five or 10 or 15 years? Will those services still be available to these families?
Meredith Berger: So that’s– that is part of why, um, we are making sure that we’re collecting that information to inform future actions and what the requirements are for those types of uh, needs and care.
Sharyn Alfonsi: That doesn’t sound like a guarantee of care in the future.
Meredith Berger: And I wanna be careful, ’cause I don’t do the health care part of things. And so I– I don’t wanna speak outside of, um, of– of where I have any authority or decision.
So we followed up with the Defense Department…which told us it’s reviewing the question of long term health care for military families…including more than 3,100 children.
Two years after the spill, some residents have reported water with a smell or sheen. The Navy is conducting daily tests at Pearl Harbor and says it is confident there is no fuel in the tap water.
Richelle Dietz is still using bottled water. The lawsuit she joined with Brittany Traeger and the other military families is scheduled to go to trial tomorrow.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What is the remedy that you want?
Brittany Traeger: In our family it’s restoring my faith in our nation.
Sharyn Alfonsi: That’s a big thing to say.
Brittany Traeger: There’s a body of government that failed. They contaminated our water, they lied to us, they did not protect us, and they did not intervene. And accountability looks like a lifelong care plan for me, my family, and the people affected. And that will restore my faith in my nation.
Produced by Guy Campanile. Associate producer, Lucy Hatcher. Broadcast associate, Erin DuCharme. Edited by Michael Mongulla.
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