Konstantin Toropin
Washington: The US is set to replace one of its aircraft carriers in the Middle East after reports emerged of mental health and supply issues aboard the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln.
Pacific-based aircraft carrier USS George Washington has begun heading for the Middle East to replace the Lincoln, which has been at sea supporting the US war on Iran for more than 260 days.
Several Democratic politicians are pressing for accountability from the Pentagon over conditions aboard the Lincoln, which Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday (US time) said were “completely misrepresented”.
The Lincoln was originally deployed from San Diego in November and arrived in the Middle East in January, before the Iran war started on February 28.
In April, when reports of food shortages aboard the ship surfaced, the navy refuted them as “false”. Accounts have now emerged that sailors on the Lincoln are struggling with mental health concerns.
The navy said in a statement that it had “not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship”, but officials declined to provide data, citing operational security and privacy concerns.
A navy official said a sailor from the Lincoln went overboard earlier this month, but was quickly recovered, treated by the carrier’s medical department and transferred off ship for follow-on care. The official would not say whether it was considered a suicide attempt.
The sailor’s wife, however, speaking anonymously to MS NOW, said she was not contacted by the navy about the incident for four days and first learnt of it from a message from another crew member.
“I think that it was handled very poorly because they didn’t inform me, and they didn’t want me to know, and they’re just trying to cover this up,” she said.
US Central Command said in an X post that reports of a spike in suicidal ideations were “false”, and the Lincoln remained “resolved and resilient after more than 260 days at sea”.
But images posted on social media this week by US journalist and content creator Aaron Parnas purportedly showed text messages sent from Lincoln crew members complaining of “no workable toilets”, “undercooked chicken” and no regular mail deliveries.
Navy leaders, including Acting Secretary Hung Cao, last week held a tense meeting for families of Lincoln crew members, at which the commanders of the navy’s air and surface forces promised to make their best efforts to relieve the carrier.
Extended naval deployments during the Iran conflict have raised concerns about the impact on service members who are away from home for long periods, as well as the increasing strain on ships and equipment.
Amid intermittent hostilities between the US and Iran, the navy has reimposed a blockade on Iranian ports in the crucial Strait of Hormuz, and the Trump administration has offered no clarity on how it intends to wind down the war.
The navy conceded that the conflict had created a “highly contested environment where traditional supply hubs in the Middle East have been disrupted by combat actions”. That, in turn, led to shortages and loss of mail aboard the aircraft carrier, the navy said in a statement.
“Leadership prioritised mission-critical supplies: first food, then hygiene items, then mail,” the statement said, before assuring that crew now had access to clean water and “healthy meal options”.
Hegseth told reporters during a visit to Panama that he wants the Lincoln’s sailors home and crews rotated as quickly as possible. He pushed back against reports of problems aboard, adding that the US could maintain its blockade of Iran “indefinitely”.
“We make sure that every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment. Some deployments are longer than others, and I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody. What they do in those high seas in those austere conditions with less port calls – it’s incredible.”
Leading Democrats are calling for investigations, more information and greater visibility into conditions aboard the ship, which was originally set to return home in May.
“The Lincoln’s prolonged deployment is especially significant because it is occurring in the context of continuing military operations against Iran and the possibility that substantial US naval forces will be required in the region for an extended period,” Connecticut senator Richard Blumenthal wrote in a letter to navy leadership.
Meanwhile, Senator Ruben Gallego, a Marine Corps veteran, said on social media that he was seeking to lead a bipartisan delegation on an official visit to the ship, and that the way sailors were being treated was “not just disgusting, it’s dangerous”.
Other US carriers have also had recent long runs that have raised concerns about morale. The USS Gerald R. Ford returned home in mid-May after an 11-month deployment, the longest since the Vietnam War, in which it supported both the Iran war and the capture in January of then-Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
During its deployment, there was a fire in a laundry space on the Ford, necessitating a return to the Mediterranean Sea for repairs and leaving hundreds of sailors without places to sleep.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that the USS George Washington would replace the Lincoln as one of the two aircraft carriers now stationed in the Middle East. The Washington left Vietnam last week, a navy statement said, and the carrier, along with a cruiser and a destroyer, has been spotted crossing the Singapore Strait, on a course for the Indian Ocean.
The US will not have a US carrier presence in the Pacific for an indefinite period.
AP
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