More than a half dozen former crewmembers of the USS Bonhomme Richard gave testimony in the arson case against a young sailor
US Navy sailor Ryan Sawyer Mays walks past reporters at Naval Base San Diego before entering a Navy courtroom Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022, in San Diego. Mays is accused of setting the USS Bonhomme Richard on fire, and his court martial is scheduled to begin Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. The July 2020 blaze damaged the billion-dollar warship so badly it had to be scuttled and marked one of the worst noncombat US warship disasters in recent memory.
According to prosecutors, Mays was an arrogant sailor angry about being assigned to deck duty after failing to become a Navy SEAL — and he made the Navy pay in a big way. Once investigators pinned the blame on Mays, who was known for being sarcastic and flippant, “nothing else mattered,” Haggerty said.
About 115 sailors were on board, and nearly 60 were treated for heat exhaustion, smoke inhalation and minor injuries. The prosecution said one sailor told investigators he saw Mays go down to the ship's lower vehicle storage area before the fire broke out there, while another sailor who escorted Mays to the brig said she overheard Mays say he did it. The defense said he was being sarcasstic after denying any wrongdoing during over 10 hours of questioning by investigators.
While investigators said Mays set the fire, a Navy report last year concluded that the inferno was preventable and unacceptable, and that there were lapses in training, coordination, communications, fire preparedness, equipment maintenance and overall command and control.
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