Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta on Friday said reportedly deplorable conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln are “inexcusable,” slamming current Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for downplaying this latest scandal when the facts “speak for themselves.”Panetta appeared on MS NOW following reports that several U.S. military service members have tried to jump off the aircraft carrier amid an extended stay due to the Iran war — and spoke bluntly when asked if wartime makes these incidents “just happen.”“Well, it shouldn’t happen,” Panetta told “The Moment” host Katy Tur during a virtual panel discussion. “Look, we deploy our men and women in uniform into harm’s way, and they’re putting their lives on the line for our country.”He continued, “It is inexcusable not to do the proper planning that has to be done in order to make sure that their deployment is not overextended, that they’re getting the supplies they need, that they’re getting the support they need.”Several relatives of those aboard the vessel met with acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao last week to discuss their loved ones’ mental health, Stars and Stripes reported. One spouse said her husband texted her that “he hopes he doesn’t wake up tomorrow.”The Military Times reported on Tuesday that several sailors have tried to jump from the ship.Yet Hegseth claimed Thursday that these reports “completely misrepresented” the conditions aboard and said the Department of Defense makes sure “every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide for them at every single moment.”Panetta recently tore into Hegseth following news that the U.S. military had exhausted most of its key missile defense systems and nearly depleted its munitions stockpiles, saying the defense secretary was making “excuses” when “the buck stops with him.”On Friday, Panetta minced no words over Hegseth’s claim that the media had misconstrued the situation at sea.“I think he’s trying to, obviously, indicate that the facts were wrong here,” he told Tur.“But the facts speak for themselves,” he said. “Every week, when I was secretary, I sat down with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs to go after every deployment to make sure that those deployments were limited and that we were aware of how long those deployments were.”Panetta said this was particularly important for carriers that hold around 5,000 people and traverse the globe. The USS Abraham Lincoln notably left San Diego on Nov. 21, 2025, eventually setting a record of 240 uninterrupted days at sea.“That’s too long, and it should have been brought back sooner,” Panetta said Friday. “Something, somebody, somewhere failed to do the proper planning for what had to take place in order to properly support our men and women in uniform.”