Having left Crete less than a month ago, the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford is returning to Souda from deployment in the Red Sea with its three destroyer escorts – the USS Bainbridge, USS Mahan and USS Winston S. Churchill. Apart from the opportunity to resupply after a period of intensive operation, the carrier needs repairs following a major fire which broke out last week in one of its laundry units and burned for 30 hours before being extinguished.