On the heels of President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissing reports of poor living conditions and low morale aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell blamed the media for what he called “a false narrative.”
“Combat deployments bring real hardship. That is simply the truth,” Parnell wrote in a post on X on Friday.
“The media treatment of the USS Abraham Lincoln is something different,” he added. “Legitimate challenges of a long combat deployment are being twisted into a false narrative, while the genuine difficulties faced by military families are being used for headlines. That is shameful.”
Parnell’s rejection of the dire issues reported aboard the aircraft carrier, which has been at sea for nine months now, is in lockstep with Trump and Hegseth’s comments this week about the controversy.
When asked about the Lincoln’s extended deployment, Trump said Friday that it was “not nearly long enough” and denied that families had expressed concern about the service members onboard. Hegseth said conditions onboard were “completely misrepresented.”
The Lincoln has spent the past five months engaged in combat operations against Iran, and its deployment at sea appears to have been extended twice during the war. It broke a modern day record for the most continuous days at sea without a port call earlier in July.
Families of the sailors and Marines have repeatedly sounded the alarm about the declining mental health of the sailors aboard and the conditions on the ship. A dozen family members of crew members told MS NOW about excruciatingly long shifts, food shortages, broken toilets and a lack of basic supplies like soap and toothpaste.
The wife of a sailor who jumped off the aircraft carrier last week told MS NOW that Navy officials did not inform her about the incident until four days after it happened. The woman, who was granted anonymity to describe sensitive mental health issues, told MS NOW that Navy officials were “trying to cover this up.”
Her husband was in the water for about an hour before he was rescued, she said, describing the incident as a suicide attempt.
Despite the public dismissals by Trump administration, the Navy has scrambled to send another aircraft carrier to the region. The USS George Washington is currently en route to the Middle East from Japan, according to a U.S. official who was granted anonymity to describe sensitive military actions, and could relieve the Lincoln and its 5,000-plus crew members.
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