Overview
- The Abraham Lincoln departed the Middle East Saturday and is transiting back to San Diego after roughly nine months at sea, a continuous deployment reported at about 270–275 days with a crew of roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines.
- Family members and sailors reported degraded living conditions aboard the carrier, including moldy showers, broken toilets and limited laundry, along with constrained food resupply and at least one overboard rescue; the Navy says a small number of mental‑health cases were treated with no loss of life and that meal plans were adjusted without missed meals.
- Journalists and officials link the shortages and long resupply times to damage at Naval Support Activity Bahrain from Iranian strikes, which forced logistics to shift to distant hubs such as Diego Garcia and made underway replenishment slower and more difficult.
- The Japan‑based USS George Washington has arrived to relieve Lincoln in the region, preserving carrier presence but temporarily shifting pressure to other theaters because several carriers are tied up in maintenance or long deployments.
- CENTCOM and Navy leaders have visited the ship, added counseling and other support, and Congress is seeking documents and briefings as lawmakers and advocates press for fixes to logistics, spare‑parts supply and sailor habitability that could affect retention and U.S. force posture.