Families of sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln say months at sea, worsening living conditions and repeated deployment extensions are taking a heavy toll on the crew, with multiple suicide attempts onboard, according to a report by Military Times.
The USS Abraham Lincoln has now spent nine months at sea, including a record 250 consecutive days without making land. For its roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines, the unprecedented deployment is becoming increasingly difficult to endure.
At an emotional town hall in San Diego last Thursday, around 200 family members confronted senior Navy officials over what they say is a growing crisis onboard the aircraft carrier, Stars and Stripes reported.
One woman told acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao that her husband had messaged her that day saying, “he hopes he doesn’t wake up tomorrow.”
Another family member accused Navy leadership of destroying the confidence families once had in the military.
The Navy had, she said, “broken trust between us and the leadership”.
Sailors Pushed To The Edge
Annabelle Loma told the Military Times that her husband tried to jump overboard after his deployment was repeatedly extended.
She said he was exhausted and frightened about what could happen to his career.
“He’s scared. He thinks he’ll get a dishonourable discharge, and just because he was burnt out his 13-year career is ruined, just like that,” she said.
In another incident, a sailor’s wife told the outlet that her husband stopped a fellow crew member from jumping overboard. He grabbed the sailor and pulled them back onto the deck.
The incidents have added to concerns that the prolonged deployment is pushing some crew members beyond their limits.
250 Days Without Land
The carrier left San Diego on November 21, originally bound for the Pacific. But after the US-Israel war with Iran began, the ship was redirected to the Middle East.
The crew has had remarkably little time ashore since then. According to MS Now, the more than 5,000 sailors and Marines have had only two days on land, one stop in Guam in December and another in Oman in July.
The deployment was initially supposed to end in May. Instead, it has been extended multiple times as the war continues.
The carrier is now in its fifth month of combat operations against Iran.
‘Moldy Showers, Broken Toilets’
The mental strain has been accompanied by complaints about basic living conditions aboard the ship.
Mike Levin, a Democratic congressman from California, described what he said crew members were facing on X.
His list included “mouldy 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. No soap, deodorant, or toothpaste.”
In April, photographs of poor-quality and rationed food emerged, while reports also described water shortages, mouldy showers and broken laundry machines.
At the time, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed the reports as “more fake news”.
But Levin has now hit back, arguing that the Navy’s most basic responsibilities are being overlooked.
“These men and women signed up to serve their country. The least their country owes them is hot water, a working toilet, and a real meal. Hegseth cannot even manage that, and he has the nerve to look their families in the eye and call them liars”, Levin said.
