US navy veterans and military health experts are expressing concerns about the strain on sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has spent nearly nine months at sea supporting US operations in the Middle East, amid reports of poor living conditions and worsening mental health among its crew. The San Diego-based aircraft carrier left port on 21 November, originally bound for the Pacific, but was redirected to the Middle East as the US-Israel war with Iran began. It has now spent more than 250 consecutive days at sea without a significant port visit, with its deployment repeatedly extended.
On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the US military was preparing to replace the Lincoln with the USS George Washington, as concerns mount over the conditions aboard the Lincoln. Reports by the Navy Times and Stars and Stripes this week described shortages of supplies and water as well as plumbing problems, low morale and deteriorating mental health among the Lincoln’s roughly 5,000 sailors, and further reported that there had been multiple attempts by sailors to jump overboard. The reports prompted several Democratic lawmakers to demand answers from the Pentagon.
In response to the reports, a navy official told the Guardian this week that they were aware that “extended deployments place a significant strain on our service members and their families, and we are grateful for the resilience and sacrifices they make” and said that the health and wellbeing of every Lincoln sailor was a priority. The official recognized that the war had disrupted traditional supply hubs, but added that “current reports from the ship confirm continuous access to clean water, functional AC and healthy meal options”. On Thursday, Pete Hegseth claimed that the conditions aboard the Lincoln had been “completely misrepresented”.
Armen Kurdian, a retired US navy captain, who served aboard the Lincoln in 2005, described the carrier as a “giant floating city” with about 5,000 people aboard. During his deployment, he said, he took a graduate-level business class remotely, while other sailors found different ways to occupy their downtime. Sailors live in close quarters, he said, with junior enlisted personnel sleeping in open bay barracks.
Kurdian recalled some plumbing problems, including broken toilets, during his deployment, and said that things becoming rusty, dirty or broken can have a “kind of depressing impact on you”. There’s never a time when you’re on the ship and everything’s going to be working perfectly. But the question is, [is] it happening a lot?” Kurdian said that what surprised him about the Lincoln’s current deployment was not its length, but the amount of time the crew had gone without a significant port visit.
Robert Murrett, a retired US navy vice-admiral, said that a typical aircraft-carrier deployment is closer to six months and normally includes port visits that allow sailors to rest and spend some time away from the ship. The Lincoln, Murrett said, “has had none of that since they left San Diego last November”. Earlier this year, the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier returned home after a 326-day deployment, marking the longest US carrier deployment since the Vietnam war.
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