US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Benfold—named after a ‘Medal of Honor’ awardee for his heroism in the Korean War—was stranded in China’s “backyard” – the South China Sea for four days after it abruptly lost power.
The guided-missile destroyer reportedly spent four days adrift after it lost power last month in the South China Sea, which is almost entirely claimed by China as its sovereign territory and is a frequent site of showdowns between Beijing and other claimants, most notably the Philippines, a US treaty ally in the region.
“On July 24, 2026, while conducting routine operations in the Indo-Pacific, Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold (DDG 65) reported an engineering casualty involving its generators, causing a loss of power,” Navy Cmdr. Matthew Comer, spokesperson for the 7th Fleet, said in a statement to USNI News on August 17, 2026. “There were no injuries to the crew, who demonstrated resilience, grit, professionalism and unwavering steadiness in their response,” he added.
The incident occurred when the USS Benfold was conducting routine operations in the Indo-Pacific as part of the USS George Washington carrier strike group (CSG), which has now been redeployed to the Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility.
In addition to the ship’s maneuvering capability, its galley services, toilets, air conditioning, and potable water were affected due to the power loss, Cmdr. Comer stated.
Other ships in the CSG aided USS Benfold, including USS Robert Smalls, which reportedly provided the stranded crew with meals and other help.
On July 28, Benfold was transported to Subic Bay in the Philippines by contractor tugboats, where staff from the Japan Regional Maintenance Center’s Ship Repair Facility greeted it and provided contracted housing off the ship.
According to Cmdr. Comer, power was restored on July 30, and all repairs were completed by the time the ship finished a fuel berth shift on August 7. The destroyer finally departed Subic Bay on August 8, 2026.
While the incident warrants scrutiny for a variety of reasons, the name of the warship is just as worthy of attention.
Commissioned in 1996, the USS Benfold is named after Edward Clyde “Ted” Benfold.
He was a Navy medic—not a line officer or combat arms specialist—who received the Medal of Honor posthumously for moving between positions treating wounded Marines under intense artillery, mortar, and infantry assault during the Battle of Bunker Hill in the Korean War.
At one point during the battle, as he got closer to a crater that had two critically injured Marines lying inside it, he saw two enemy grenades fall into the crater. Benford acted quickly, grabbed both grenades, and pressed them on the chests of the two enemy soldiers who had charged at the injured Marines.
He managed to kill the assailants and shield the injured Marines at the expense of his own life, according to publicly available information.
Notably, US Navy destroyers are named primarily after deceased Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard personnel, as well as Secretaries of the Navy who have distinguished themselves through heroism or leadership.
However, this list also includes enlisted sailors and specialists whose actions have met the same standard in combat. Benfold fits squarely in that tradition as a corpsman whose self-sacrifice saved lives under fire.
Furthermore, the ship’s name aligns with the official motto of USS Benfold: “Onward with Valor,” which Benfold demonstrated on the battlefield.
While the USS Benfold is arguably the most famous active combat ship named after a single enlisted Navy hospital corpsman, several other ships have been traditionally named in honor of medics, medical personnel, or the broader legacy of military medicine.
Trouble in The Navy?
Notably, the confirmation of a power loss aboard USS Benfold has further prompted concerns that the Navy has been stretched too thin.
The Benfold incident is the second time a US Navy destroyer has lost power within Pacific Command’s sphere of influence. Earlier, USS Higgins lost power and propulsion for several hours in the Indo-Pacific region in May 2026 after suffering what a Navy statement called an “engineering casualty” in its electrical system.
The disclosure about the Benfold comes days after news broke of a mental health crisis among the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier that had been on an extended deployment in the Middle East amid the Iran War.
With 5,000 sailors and Marines onboard, the carrier set sail for its deployment in November 2025, marking about nine months at sea.
Last week, reports noted that the mental health crisis among the crew has become so intense that some sailors even tried to jump from the carrier. The family members of the “exhausted” personnel claimed that there was a food shortage, adding that terrible health and unhygienic circumstances have been exacerbated by damaged showers and toilets.
Senator Ruben Gallego, a veteran Marine and Democrat from Arizona, alleged in an interaction with ABC News that the issues stemmed from the Iran war, which the Trump administration began in February.
“The deep, deep, deep problem here is that this administration did not plan for this war, did not plan how to get out of this war, and did not really understand how this war was going to escalate,” he said.
While the Trump administration has categorically dismissed the mounting criticism, USS George Washington has been ordered to relieve USS Abraham Lincoln from duty.
However, USS Washington’s redeployment has done little to assuage concerns, as the critical Indo-Pacific region is now left without an aircraft carrier at a time when China’s military continues to flex its muscles in the region.
The US Navy has 11 aircraft carriers, but the fleet has been stretched by the US war on Iran and the ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Typically, keeping two carriers in the Middle East for an extended period could mean periodic zero-carrier coverage in the Pacific because sustained high-tempo operations disrupt rotations, maintenance, and crew rest.
Analysts have argued that this shows the difficulty of sustaining simultaneous major commitments in two distant theaters, and sends a message of vulnerability to adversaries. They believe Beijing could potentially exploit the void.
Against that backdrop, the revelations about the USS Benfold power breakdown have prompted fresh concerns among officials and veterans, with many attributing these rising difficulties to the unprecedented hostilities in the Middle East.
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