Overview
- The USS Abraham Lincoln has been continuously deployed for roughly nine months with about 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard and has spent more than 250 consecutive days at sea, family members and military outlets report.
- Families and specialty outlets say multiple sailors have tried to jump overboard and that crew morale is collapsing amid exhaustion from repeated mission extensions.
- Reported living-condition problems include moldy showers, broken toilets, laundry outages, long stretches without hot water, limited toiletries and anecdotal accounts of severely reduced meals.
- Navy officials say they have not identified a documented increase in suicidal ideation, stress that counselors and medical support are available, and maintain the ship remains mission capable.
- Senators have demanded formal inquiries and documentation of who authorized the extensions while Navy leaders say the USS Theodore Roosevelt is being prepared to relieve the Lincoln with no public timeline, raising questions about readiness and retention.