The situation on the US aircraft carrier is reportedly dire. Families and Democrats demand answers

Democratic lawmakers and military families pressed the Pentagon for answers Friday over reported conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East, after President Trump said the carrier’s deployment was “not nearly long enough.”

The Los Angeles Times said Military Times and Stars and Stripes reported that sailors had tried to jump overboard during a deployment that has stretched more than 260 days. Reports described food shortages, plumbing failures and severe fatigue among the roughly 5,000-person crew.

The USS Abraham Lincoln left San Diego in November and has been stationed in the Middle East to support the U.S. war against Iran. Stars and Stripes said the crew has spent a record amount of time at sea without a port visit. The U.S. military announced plans to send the Pacific-based USS George Washington to relieve it, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the reports “completely misrepresented.”

Rep. Mike Levin, a San Diego Democrat, wrote to Hegseth on Thursday that “The plans in the works to relieve the USS Lincoln are not enough.” He added: “We need clear and honest information from the Department of Defense about the operational failures that led to the problems aboard the USS Lincoln to ensure this never happens again.” Levin said families had raised concerns about moldy showers, broken toilets, lack of hot water, lack of fresh produce and supply shortages.

Julie Roland, a retired veteran Navy lieutenant commander who worked briefly on the USS Lincoln, said morale on a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is hard to maintain even without a record-setting stint at sea. She cited below-deck lack of sunlight for some nonpilot personnel and triple-bunk rooms, and said she had received videos of trash being tossed overboard because of broken incinerators and heard accounts of inadequate medical supplies. “I know what months at sea does to a person even when the ship has hot chow and working plumbing,” Roland said.

Rep. Sara Jacobs, a San Diego Democrat who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, demanded answers from military leaders over what she called “horrific” reports from the ship. Military leaders held in-person and virtual meetings last week with families of sailors and Marines; both were combative, according to a recording obtained by MS NOW. A January 2025 Military Medicine study of nearly 1,000 sailors found that service members aboard Navy ships had the highest rates of “serious psychological distress” compared with other U.S. military branches.