Looks like Adm. Gilday is getting Administration backup in his determination to get the USN's house in order.
“Could there be another Bonhomme Richard waiting to happen? If you go back to 2017, who would have predicted we’d have had two collisions of that magnitude within a month?” Gilday said in a July 16 interview with Defense News. “So, I’m not waiting for ‘No. 2’ to decide we have a trend here. In a situation like this, one incident is enough for me to determine that there could be a trend and I’m not going to leave it to chance that there might be.”
In a letter to shipbuilders and contractors on Friday, James Geurts, Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development and Acquisition) is reported by Defense News as saying ""Anyone who steps aboard our ships must be ever vigilant about ensuring fire safety, I urge you to use [the recent fire] to ensure that our work spaces are clean, that unnecessary clutter is removed, that all fire safety measures are being followed and that there is unrestricted access to firefighting and damage control equipment."
The Navy has launched dual investigations into the fire: A safety investigation, which are generally not released to the public so that witnesses can feel free to speak openly, and a more formal administrative investigation, which generally comes with disciplinary recommendations and are releasable to the public.
Source: DefenseNews 25JUL2020
Full text of article here:
a far-reaching crackdown on fire safety