The Navy is bringing home the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln after a punishing nine-month deployment. It has said nothing about the roughly 1,000 sailors total across the three destroyers sent to protect it.
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao announced on Aug. 14 that the sailors and Marines aboard the USS Lincoln would return home. He made no mention of the USS Frank E. Petersen Jr., the USS Michael Murphy and the USS Spruance — the three guided-missile destroyers currently deployed alongside the USS Lincoln, according to a Navy official granted anonymity to speak about a situation they were unauthorized to address publicly.
The destroyers have been deployed with the USS Lincoln since late 2025, according to the U.S. Naval Institute. As of Monday, no orders have been issued for the three ships about when they will be relieved.
That silence contradicts what Navy leadership told the families of service members at an in-person town hall on Aug. 6 at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego, according to four people who attended. Officers at that meeting described the strike group as a composite unit, according to the four people, and said the Navy intended to bring the whole formation home together.
Navy officials at the Pentagon declined to tell MS NOW whether the destroyers would leave the region with the USS Lincoln.
The three ships carry air and missile defense systems along with sonar and torpedoes for anti-submarine warfare. They can also strike enemy vessels and long-range land targets by launching Tomahawk and Harpoon cruise missiles. But a destroyer’s central job is to shield the carrier it sails with — and that carrier is leaving.
A sailor on board one of the destroyers who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss operations publicly said the crew had been told its mission was to “escort and protect the Lincoln.” With the USS Lincoln expected to be relieved, the sailor said confusion has spread over what their mission is now.
The sailor said it is “wonderful” the USS Lincoln’s crew is returning home, and that they deserve to be with their families and friends. But no one has told the rest of the strike group anything.
The destroyers have endured many of the same conditions reported aboard the carrier, according to the sailor and a family member of another sailor: shortages of food and supplies, plumbing failures and equipment that broke down and proved difficult to repair at sea. While the crew is adept at making makeshift fixes, the sailor said, those repairs are not sustainable for long-term operations.
Morale, the sailor said, is “abysmal.” For months during this deployment, at least one destroyer in the strike group went without adequate supplies or mail delivery. Supply issues have improved, the sailor said, though items such as laundry detergent are still rationed.
“Most of my command is just holding on by a thread,” the sailor said. “We have no other option but to just do our job till we can go home.”
Families with loved ones on the destroyers are increasingly worried about what the deployment is doing to their sailors’ mental health. The aforementioned relative — who was granted anonymity to address a sensitive topic — said their sailor’s mental health has changed dramatically over the deployment and that the sailor plans to seek therapy after returning home. Another said they had never seen their loved one so defeated.
Asked about the conditions onboard these destroyers, a Navy spokesperson declined to respond.
The USS Lincoln left its home port of San Diego on Nov. 21 and was expected to return in May. Its deployment was extended twice because of the Iran war. Over its deployment, the ship has made only two port calls — in Guam on Dec. 11 and a brief stop in Oman on July 7 — keeping the crew at sea for 208 continuous days, a modern-era record.
Under mounting public pressure to relieve the USS Lincoln, the Navy has scrambled in recent days to move another carrier into the region. The USS George Washington was steaming toward the Middle East as of Friday, according to a U.S. official who was granted anonymity to describe sensitive military operations.
“I think the Navy made decisions to control the media backlash,” the sailor told MS NOW, “but at the cost of retaining many of the smaller ships until redirected ships can make it into the 5th Fleet.”
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