Topline
Soldiers and marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln have been at sea for more than 260 days as of Wednesday in one of the longest aircraft carrier deployments in modern history, and families are warning of a worsening mental health crisis onboard that has reportedly seen multiple attempts by servicemembers to jump off the ship.
Key Facts
Multiple military publications and Congressmen are sounding the alarm about conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, a 37-year-old nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that is in its ninth month at sea and fifth month of combat operations against Iran.
The deployment, which started on Nov. 21 and was expected to end in May for the 5,000 sailors and Marines on board, has been extended several times with no announced end date. Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) has said servicemembers are dealing with inhumane physical conditions on board and Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) has warned the mental “strain on our service members and their families is building week by week.”
The Navy Times, an independent news outlet that covers the U.S. Navy, reported multiple servicemembers have attempted to jump from the carrier and Stars and Stripes, another independent media publication, also reported on thwarted suicide attempts onboard.
One wife told Stars and Stripes her husband had texted her saying “he hopes he doesn’t wake up tomorrow,” and one parent told the outlet their sailor son reported “he and his shipmates constantly think about jumping off the ship just for relief.”
The crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln has stepped foot on land only two days since Nov. 21, according to Stars and Stripes—one in Guam in December (where many sailors were not allowed to disembark) and one re-stocking stop in Oman in July, where sailors who could leave the ship were restricted to a secure compound within the port.
The public has been made aware of conditions onboard including rationed food and broken amenities, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed the accounts as “more fake news.”
Forbes has reached out to the U.S. Navy for comment.
CRUCIAL QUOTE
“Moldy showers, broken toilets, laundry down for weeks, long stretches with no hot water, a meal that came down to half a cup of rice and two tortillas,” Levin said of life aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. “No soap, deodorant or toothpaste.”
Key background
The USS Abraham Lincoln, which functions as a mobile air base at sea, left its homeport in San Diego on Nov. 21 for a routine Pacific deployment. The carrier was redirected to the Middle East in January, ahead of the U.S. and Israel’s attacks on Iran, and has been stationed in the Arabian Sea ever since. Officials have been unable to tell families when the Lincoln will return home, Stars and Stripes reported, adding “uncertainty” over when a deployment will end can take a “significant toll” on servicemembers. Vice Adm. Joseph Cahill, commander of Naval Surface Forces, told families at a meeting in San Diego earlier this month he heard them “loud and clear” regarding the impact the extended deployment is having on sailors and families, and said the warship is equipped with deployment-resilience counselors and chaplains.
BIG NUMBER
Six months. That had been the modern-day standard deployment for the Navy’s carrier strike groups, but too few in service and too many hotspots have led to increasingly long terms. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the largest and most advanced aircraft carrier ever built, holds the modern deployment record of 326 days at sea. Its deployment ended in May.