Pete Schroeder
Washington: The leader of US Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper, said his recent visit to the USS Abraham Lincoln was “awe-inspiring” and hailed the crew’s “resilience” following reports of concerns about mental health and deteriorating conditions aboard the aircraft carrier.
“This doesn’t mean that all is perfect,” the admiral said after visiting the beleaguered warship.
The ship has not made a port call in more than 200 days, setting a modern-day record for consecutive days at sea, according to Democratic lawmakers who have called for answers after sailors’ families raised concerns about worsening conditions on the Lincoln.
Cooper acknowledged that such long deployments were “uniquely challenging and tough” and that service at sea “for long periods isn’t for everyone”.
The reported complaints include food and supply shortages, water contamination, sewage problems and deteriorating morale on the ship, which has about 5000 sailors and Marines aboard. The Military Times reported that at least two sailors have attempted to jump overboard.
The navy previously said in a statement that it had “not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship”, but officials declined to provide data, citing operational security and privacy concerns.
A navy official said a sailor from the Lincoln went overboard this month, but was quickly recovered, treated by the carrier’s medical department and transferred off ship for follow-on care. The official would not say whether it was considered a suicide attempt.
Cooper, who visited the ship on Saturday during a Middle East tour, wrote in a statement posted on social media on Sunday (US time) that the Lincoln had the lowest number of mental health cases of the navy’s 11 active aircraft carriers.
He praised the carrier’s leadership for prioritising mental health and crew resilience and said it was “another aspect of individual health and requires our attention just like physical health and spiritual health”.
Cooper said some of the concerns that had surfaced were “old news”. In separate comments in The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, he said that “issues related to food, hot water and other concerns” were raised “months ago” and had been addressed.
Last week, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed reports about conditions on the ship, saying they “completely misrepresented” the situation.
US President Donald Trump on Friday also waived away concerns about the length of the ship’s deployment, saying it was “not nearly long enough”.
Acting navy Secretary Hung Cao said in a statement on Friday that the crew has been deployed in a combat zone for more than 200 days, carried out 10,000 sorties and dropped 680,000 kilograms of ordnance.
He said, “a small number” of mental health cases were treated with no loss of life and that “meal plans were adjusted when fresh resupply was unavailable”.
“There is no question our young men and women have been pushed to their limits – but they have never broken,” he said.
US officials have said the Lincoln would return home soon as part of a planned rotation, and be replaced by the Pacific-based aircraft carrier USS George Washington.
Other US carriers have also had recent long runs that have raised concerns about morale. The USS Gerald R. Ford returned home in mid-May after an 11-month deployment, the longest since the Vietnam War, in which it supported both the Iran war and the capture in January of then-Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
During its deployment, there was a fire in a laundry space on the Ford, necessitating a return to the Mediterranean Sea for repairs and leaving hundreds of sailors without places to sleep.
Reuters, AP
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