Family members of sailors and Marines confronted Navy leaders in San Diego on Thursday night over conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, pressing for answers as the carrier’s deployment continues with no clear return date. The ship is on a combat mission against Iran, and the concerns raised centered on mental health, supply shortages and water contamination aboard the vessel.
The meeting landed at a moment when the Lincoln’s absence has gone from a routine deployment problem to a family crisis. About 5,000 sailors and Marines are aboard the ship, and relatives said it has set a modern-day record for the most continuous days at sea during the ongoing Iran war. That length of time has sharpened the worry over day-to-day life on board, from food shortages and safety on deck to disruptions in the mail system and care packages that family members said had been lost in transit for months.
About 200 family members packed into a banquet room at the Island Club on Naval Air Station North Island, while Vice Adm. Joseph Cahill and Vice Adm. Douglas Verissimo addressed the 200-plus attendees virtually later Thursday night. The split setting captured the distance between the Navy and the people waiting for the Lincoln to come home. Family members wanted a date and a plan. Navy leaders offered reassurance, but not a timetable.
Cahill said, “I cannot even tell you how proud we are of them.” He also said the sailors and Marines “have executed with a level of precision and professionalism that just goes to the quality of our people that have chosen to put the cloth of our nation on our shoulder and answer this call.”
That praise did not erase the complaints in the room. Families described exhaustion, mental strain and basic shortages aboard the carrier, and they said the ship’s deployment appears to have been extended for a second time. Water contamination was part of the concern as well, though the Navy did not spell out the problem in public terms beyond the complaints raised by relatives.
Hung Cao said the Navy is preparing the USS Theodore Roosevelt to deploy to the Middle East to relieve the Lincoln, but he did not say when that would happen. The Navy also did not specify when the Lincoln would return home. For the families who filled the room Thursday night, that uncertainty was the point: the ship is still at sea, the complaints are still building, and the next date that matters has not been given.
