Family members of sailors and Marines confronted acting secretary of the Navy Hung Cao in San Diego on Thursday night over conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72). The families raised concerns about mental health, supply shortages and water contamination while the ship’s deployment continued with no clear date to return home.
About 200 family members packed a banquet room at the Island Club at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego. The Lincoln has 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard, and family members said the deployment appears to have been extended for a second time.
Hung Cao at Naval Air Station North Island
Cao told the group that the Navy is preparing the USS Theodore Roosevelt to deploy to the Middle East to relieve the Lincoln. He was unable to specify when that relief would come, leaving families with no timetable for when the ship’s long mission will end.
The complaints went beyond the length of the deployment. Family members said they were worried about mental health, safety on deck, a lack of supplies, food shortages, water contamination and disruptions in the mail system. Many care packages en route to the ship have been lost in transit for months.
Joseph Cahill and Vice Adm Douglas Verissimo
Later on Thursday night, Vice Adm. Joseph Cahill and Vice Adm. Douglas Verissimo addressed the 200-plus attendees virtually. Cahill told them, “I cannot even tell you how proud we are of them. They 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”
The result for families is simple: the ship remains at sea, the relief plan exists, and the return date does not. Until the Navy puts a time on the Theodore Roosevelt’s move, the people waiting for the Lincoln will keep measuring the deployment in weeks already gone, not days left.
