Donald Trump brushed aside mounting alarm over conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, even as accounts pile up of desperate sailors trying to go overboard during a record-shattering Iran war deployment.
The Lincoln and its more than 5,000 sailors and Marines have spent over 250 days at sea since leaving San Diego last November, diverted to support the war with Iran.
Navy families have described collapsing morale and suicidal ideation on board, with one sailor’s wife telling Navy Times her severely burned-out husband attempted to jump overboard.
On August 3, a sailor assigned to the carrier’s air wing went into rough seas wearing a life vest in what the Navy deemed a mental health episode, according to CNN. He was pulled from the water by a search and rescue helicopter within the hour.
Confronted with the fears of military families over conditions on the carrier, the president flatly denied those fears existed: ‘Well, no, that ship is moving. No, they’re not.’
‘That ship is moving right now, or very shortly, and it’s being replaced with another very similar ship,’ Trump added. The USS George Washington warship is now steaming toward the Middle East to relieve the Lincoln in a swap officials insist was already planned.
Asked whether the deployment had simply gone on too long, the president shot back: ‘No. Not nearly long enough.’
Since the start of Trump’s war, reports have surfaced of food shortages and rationing aboard the Lincoln, accompanied by grim images of sailors’ meals.
Donald Trump brushed aside mounting alarm over conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, even as accounts pile up of desperate sailors trying to go overboard during a record-shattering Iran war deployment
The Lincoln and its more than 5,000 sailors and Marines have spent over 250 days at sea
Since the start of Trump’s war, reports have surfaced of food shortages and rationing aboard the Lincoln, accompanied by grim images of sailors’ meals. These photos leaked earlier this year
Asked whether the deployment had simply gone on too long, the president shot back: ‘No. Not nearly long enough.’
Anxious family members also vented their anger to Navy leaders in San Diego last Thursday, according to Stars and Stripes.
One spouse reportedly said conditions aboard were so bad that her husband texted her saying ‘he hopes he doesn’t wake up tomorrow.’
Another woman accused naval officials of breaking the ‘trust between us and the leadership’ by failing to be more transparent about their loved ones’ living conditions.
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal and other lawmakers are demanding answers from Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth.
Lawmakers want a bipartisan congressional visit to the ship, while Hegseth has waved off the reporting as a complete mischaracterization.
Eighteen US service members have died in Iranian strikes across the region since the war began in February, with hundreds more wounded.
US Central Command has pushed back hard, calling the reports of dire conditions aboard the carrier ‘false’ and insisting its crews ‘remain resilient and resolved.’
Retired Vice Admiral Robert Murrett, now a professor at Syracuse University, told Newsweek that extended Navy deployments can certainly lead to an increase in mental health challenges.
Most carrier deployments run about six months with port calls along the way to refuel and let crews rest on land.
