The US Navy has a massive problem on its hands. The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) is sailing off the Strait of Hormuz, and it has been at sea for 250 days. Forty of those days, it was supporting continuous combat operations, adding to the stress. This is a record-breaking cruise with 5,000 sailors and marines aboard. The reports of food shortages, lack of hot water, no laundry services and backed up toilets are legion, and undisputed. Their 7-month cruise is approaching its 10th month. The conditions would have had a less-0disciplined crew consider mutiny. The Pentagon has failed the crew and the military families from whence they came.
Stars and Stripes news service reported:
Lincoln left its San Diego homeport Nov. 21 for a routine Pacific deployment, less than a year after returning from a 162-day deployment in December 2024, USNI News reported at the time.
The carrier was soon redirected to the Middle East, arriving there in January. Since then, Lincoln has remained on station in the Arabian Sea.
Citing operational security, officials at Thursday’s meetings [in the US with family members] would not say when Lincoln would return home, spouses said.
So, if the Navy has a date to send them home, it is a secret. However, a little research and thinking suggest that this is not about to end any time soon. If the USS Lincoln left today, it could arrive in San Diego in about 3 weeks, arounbd September 1. However, that would leave no aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Oman to look after the war.
There are 11 other carriers with the US flag, but a few are in for repairs and others are not well positioned for other reasons. Two are feasible: the USS Theodore Roosevelt (which has just finished exercises in the western Pacific) or the USS Dwight Eisenhower (which is much farther away). One of them would need orders to relive the Lincoln. None has been issued as far as anyone can tell.
The Pentagon got into this mess because the administration presumed the war with Iran would be done and dusted in a couple of weeks. They thought the ship could be steaming home by April, keeping the deployment to the 7-month standard. When Iran failed to follow the script, the White House and the Navy failed the crew on the ship by not considering a relief ship.
“My son is currently on that ship and listening to him say that he and his shipmates constantly think about jumping off the ship just for relief is so hard to listen to,” one worried parent wrote to Stars and Stripes in July. “We are all tucked in at night in our beds at night meanwhile our loved ones are out there fighting with no understanding as to what they’re defending.”
“We already had an instance where watch standers had to stop someone from jumping,” one sailor said. The ship’s crew was informed about the incident, which occurred a few months ago, during a ship-wide announcement, sailors said.
Other outlets are suggesting that more than one sailor or marine did jump. Isaid,”One spouse among the 200 or so family members [at the meeting}said that her husband had texted her that day saying ‘he hopes he doesn’t wake up tomorrow’.”
This is not a hard fix. Someone must make the decision to relieve the Lincoln and give orders for that to happen. Also, a plan to relieve the relief ship needs to be in place so that there is not a repeat of this command failure.
Whiskey Pete Kegsbreath needs to resign as Secretary of Defense. He has broken whatever trust the crew had in the Pentagon.