LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Democratic lawmakers are calling for the Pentagon to investigate conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier have been at sea for more than 250 days and are reportedly dealing with poor living conditions leading to deteriorating mental health. And we want to warn you - the story mentions suicide.
FADEL: Steve Walsh covers the military for WHRO and joins us from Norfolk, Virginia. Steve, what are you hearing?
STEVE WALSH, BYLINE: Hey, Leila. So we know that the carrier's time at sea has set a record - that 250 consecutive days is longer than the time - the deployments during the COVID era when ships were intentionally kept away from port. After leaving San Diego in November, USS Lincoln had one brief port visit. Since then, it has been positioned in the Middle East supporting the war effort in Iran. That is a grueling pace for a carrier with more than 5,000 sailors onboard.
Lawmakers are now demanding answers about the conditions on the Lincoln. MS NOW and others have been reporting that sailors have attempted to jump from the carrier, which NPR has not been able to independently confirm. Senator Richard Blumenthal and other Democrats are demanding that the Pentagon investigate shortages of food, toilets not working and lack of mental health care onboard the ship.
FADEL: Has mental health been an issue for sailors on these carriers in the past?
WALSH: Oh, it has. The Navy dramatically changed how it handled mental health after a rash of suicides in 2022 onboard the USS Washington while it was in Newport News. Lawmakers want to know if the Navy is still following those policies. The Navy says that it has seen no increase in suicidal ideation or attempts aboard the ship and that mental health professionals are on hand. CENTCOM says one sailor was quickly rescued August 3 after falling overboard.
FADEL: Now, you broke the story of the carrier USS Ford - its lengthy deployment and its chronic sanitation issues. How unusual is what we're seeing with the crew of the Lincoln?
WALSH: Well, being out at sea takes a toll on sailors. Normally, they would come into port after a month or so to resupply and let sailors spend time off the ship. The war in Iran has made that impossible. Shortly after the war began in late February, Iran attacked the Navy's main hub in the region in Bahrain. This has meant the Navy has not been able to use its traditional supply hub in the region. Instead, they've had to scramble to find ways to keep ships stocked. I recently talked with the admiral in charge of Navy Sealift Command. Rear Admiral Benjamin Nicholson was at a ceremony honoring the crews that supplied the Navy ships at the start of the war.
BENJAMIN NICHOLSON: There's always been logistics hubs that have been relatively close by that we could call on to get the parts and get the food and get the fuel that we needed. In this conflict, those logistics hubs were not available to us, so we had to adapt our strategy of how we would resupply the fleet.
FADEL: So what does this mean for the crew?
WALSH: Mail deliveries and care packages arrive slowly. After a few weeks at sea, the first thing to run out are the freshies, which are things like fresh fruit and vegetables. Morale suffers. Most sailors live their lives below deck. They may not see the sun for weeks. The Associated Press is reporting that the Navy will move the carrier USS Washington into the region to replace USS Lincoln. Navy officials tell me that the Washington is still in the Pacific right now. But I do know that Navy planners have talked about the possibility of swapping the two carriers even before the latest round of damning public reports.
FADEL: That's Steve Walsh of WHRO. Thank you, Steve.
WALSH: Thanks, Leila.
FADEL: If you are anyone you know is in crisis, text the National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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