Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Thursday that reports of dire conditions aboard USS Abraham Lincoln, from rotten meat to a lack of milk for cereal, are “completely misrepresented.”Hegseth’s comments come as the ongoing blockade of Iran has pushed the Navy’s logistics network to the brink. The USS Abraham Lincoln, one of America’s premier aircraft carriers, is entering the ninth month of its grueling deployment. The ship is reportedly facing mounting morale issues, according to the families of its crew.
“Listen, we make sure that every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment,” Hegseth told Newsmax. “Some deployments are longer than others, and I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody. What they do in those high seas and those austere conditions with less port calls, it’s incredible.
“I want them home as soon as everybody else,” Hegseth said. “I want folks rotated as quickly as possible. I want the best for them. My commanders know that, our service secretaries know that, the president expects that.”The Lincoln’s sailors left San Diego in November, with the ship’s deployment extended as the tenuous ceasefire between the United States and Iran deteriorated. The ship is now set to be replaced by the USS George Washington after one of the longest deployments of any aircraft carrier in history.CNN reported this week that a sailor assigned to the ship’s air wing had jumped overboard as the morale crisis worsens. MeidasTouch News published text messages from an anonymous service member’s family member, as the ship still has no planned return date.“Why isn’t there milk?!” the family member asked in one screenshot.“So the supply ship that comes here can’t bring fruits and stuff cause it can’t stay fresh long enough with the time it gets them to get here,” the sailor responded. “So we haven’t had anything fresh but meat cause it’s freezed. Sometimes it gets here rotten.”NAVY ADMITS ‘SIGNIFICANT STRAIN’ ON DEPLOYED SERVICE MEMBERS AFTER REPORTS OF WORSENING MENTAL HEALTHThe crisis on the ship has prompted attention from legislators on Capitol Hill.Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent Hegseth and acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao a letter on Wednesday to express his “serious concern” with the Lincoln’s extended deployment.
