Halon being tagged out wouldn't have influenced the outcome here. Lower V is not Halon protected. MMR1 below it is, but not V. The next closest Halon compartment would have been FWD EDG, which would have been beyond too late once the fire reached it. The AFFF system would have made short work of the fire, had it not been tagged out / in IEM -- definitely affected the fire attack.

I did two years on Iwo, and BZ to the Bonny crew. They did all they could have with those fire trees with plastic nozzles until help arrived.

I understand that, but why is a 23-year old ship considered old? USS Nimitz is nearing 50 years old. Wikipedia [1] lists a bunch of ships built in the 70s and 80s. USS Bonhomme Richard appears to be newer than half the ships there.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_ships_of_the_U...