The prolonged deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln is reportedly taking a severe toll on sailors and Marines aboard the US aircraft carrier, with families raising concerns about repeated extensions, deteriorating living conditions and multiple suicide attempts, according to reports by Military Times and Stars and Stripes.
The carrier has now spent nine months at sea, including 250 consecutive days without a port call. Around 5,000 sailors and Marines are serving aboard the vessel, which was initially deployed to the Pacific before being redirected to the Middle East after the US-Israel war with Iran began.
Families raise alarm over crew's mental health
At a town hall in San Diego last Thursday, around 200 family members reportedly confronted senior Navy officials about the strain the extended deployment is placing on crew members and their families.
One woman told acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao that her husband had messaged her saying, "He hopes he doesn't wake up tomorrow."
Another family member accused Navy leadership of damaging the relationship between service members' families and military authorities, saying the Navy had "broken trust between us and the leadership".
Annabelle Loma told Military Times that her husband had attempted to jump overboard after his deployment was extended several times.
"He's scared. He thinks he'll get a dishonourable discharge, and just because he was burnt out his 13-year career is ruined, just like that," she said.
In another reported incident, a sailor's wife said her husband intervened when a fellow crew member tried to jump overboard, grabbing and pulling the sailor back onto the deck.
Crew spends months with little time ashore
The USS Abraham Lincoln left San Diego on November 21. According to MS Now, the crew has spent only two days on land during the deployment — one stop in Guam in December and another in Oman in July.
The deployment was originally expected to end in May but has been extended repeatedly. The carrier is now in its fifth month of combat operations against Iran.
Complaints over basic facilities
Families have also raised concerns about conditions aboard the ship. California Congressman Mike Levin listed complaints, including "mouldy showers, broken toilets, laundry down for weeks, long stretches with no hot water, a meal that came down to half a cup of rice and two tortillas. No soap, deodorant, or toothpaste".
Earlier reports of poor food and other shortages were dismissed by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth as "more fake news".
Levin has since criticised the response, saying, "These men and women signed up to serve their country. The least their country owes them is hot water, a working toilet, and a real meal. Hegseth cannot even manage that, and he has the nerve to look their families in the eye and call them liars," Levin said.