As the USS Abraham Lincoln completes its 264 day on deployment supporting the war with Iran, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao demanding answers about conditions aboard the aircraft carrier that were first reported by MS NOW.
The carrier beat a modern day record for the most continuous days at sea without a port call in early July, raising concerns from family members about exhaustion and low morale potentially leading to deadly accidents.
Family members also expressed to MS NOW and at two subsequent town halls with Navy leaders last week that they are worried about food shortages; a lack of hygienic products, such as deodorant, toothpaste and soap; moldy showers, nonoperational toilets; and laundry facilities that have been broken for weeks.
“These reports warrant immediate attention, but they also raise a broader question: whether the Navy can sustain the operational tempo now being demanded of its carrier force, particularly as this Administration repeatedly commits U.S. forces to conflicts of its own choosing and increasingly relies on aircraft carriers to sustain those operations,” Blumenthal wrote in the letter dated Aug. 12.
The Lincoln left San Diego on Nov. 21, made a brief port call in Guam on Dec. 11 and then didn’t stop again until July 7, when it quickly stopped at a port in Oman.
The Lincoln isn’t the only aircraft carrier that recently broke a Navy record. The USS Ford spent 326 days at sea, breaking a record for longest modern day carrier deployment after supporting both Operation Epic Fury and military operations in Venezuela.
“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 U.S. naval forces will be required in the region for an extended period. The Administration has yet to adequately explain the objectives, end state, or anticipated duration of those operations,” Blumenthal wrote.
Family members have also repeatedly expressed concerns over the mental health of their loved ones as the 7 month deployment appears to have been extended for a second time with no clear end date in sight.
Blumenthal, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, demanded that Hegseth and Cao answer his questions by Aug. 27, including how many times the carrier’s deployment has been extended and why, what the Navy’s plans are for a continued carrier strike group presence in the Middle East, what metrics the Navy is using to assess mental health and fatigue among the service members on board, the conditions on the ship and what military objective the continued deployment of the Lincoln intends to achieve.
In April, when news outlets reported on food shortages on the Lincoln, Hegseth and Adm. Daryl Caudle, chief of naval operations, called the reports “fake news.”
But last week, a Navy Fifth Fleet spokesperson and Navy leaders in the contentious virtual and in-person town halls on Aug. 6 acknowledged that there have been supply issues as a result of the war with Iran, but they maintained that they are working to improve conditions on the ship.
Navy leaders were not able to give family members any definitive timeline on when the Lincoln would return to San Diego, but they indicated that the USS Theodore Roosevelt, another aircraft carrier, would soo be sent to the region to relieve them.
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