10,000 man hours to keep 423 aircraft carrier toilets working

One would think that after spending $6.2 billion to build a super aircraft carrier that the least that they could do was to make sure that the toilets worked; which really is kind of important when you are carrying 5,000 sailors.

The problem is so bad that it has taken some 10,000 man hours of work to get the 423 vacuum powered toilets to work properly. Of course this isn’t made any easier by the fact that this system has over 250 miles of piping but according to the Navy it is being brought to its knees because of sailors flushing non-waste materials through the system.

It has gotten so bad that sailors have been coming down with urinary tract infections because they are “holding” it for to long, unlike other sailors who have in dire times of need resorted to using empty bottles or other such means to relieve themselves into.

From the Navy Times:

As they wait, sailors do a quick survey of who has reached their physical limit, and sailors who need to go the most get bumped to the front of the queue.

“We all assess who is going to go in their pants first and set the lines according to that,” the second class said.

Oh, and the name of the aircraft carrier?

The George H.W. Bush (CVN-77).