Can science point the way toward designing environments to maximize mental health in such situations?
1:00 PM CDT on August 14, 2026
Things seem to be getting dicey on the high seas. Sailors aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, a large aircraft carrier deployed to the Middle East to support the United States’ war with Iran since January of this year, are communicating through family members that conditions, morale, and crewmember mental health are deteriorating.
Every day, new reports are filtering in from reporters receiving messages from the families of some of the 5,000 service members on the aircraft carrier, which has been at sea since departing from its home post in San Diego in November of last year. Text messages from an anonymous sailor to a family member and shared with reporter Aaron Parnas at miedasnews.com allege food shortages aboard the carrier. “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 [sic] them to get here,” read one. “So we haven’t had anything fresh …”
“Haven’t had milk in 3 months,” read another.
