Reports of sailors jumping off USS Abraham Lincoln emerged as the carrier reached 250 consecutive days without making land. The ship has about 5,000 sailors and marines aboard, and families raised concerns at a town hall meeting in San Diego with Navy leaders.
Annabelle Loma said her husband tried to jump overboard after his spell at sea kept being extended. She told The Navy Times, “He’s scared. He thinks he’ll get a dishonorable discharge, and just because he was burnt out his 13-year career is ruined, just like that.”
USS Abraham Lincoln at Sea
The USS Abraham Lincoln left San Diego on 21 November, was originally intended for the Pacific, and was redirected to the Middle East once the US-Israel war with Iran began. The crew is now in its ninth month at sea, with only two days on land since the deployment began, one in Guam in December and the other in Oman in July.
The deployment was scheduled to end in May but has been extended a couple of times. That long stretch at sea has put the carrier in its fifth month of combat operations against Iran, while military families and Congress members have said the strain on service members and their families is building week by week.
Family Accounts and Crew Strain
Another sailor’s wife said her husband stopped a fellow crew member from jumping by grabbing them and bringing them back on deck. Mike Levin described conditions onboard as “moldy showers, broken toilets, laundry down for weeks, long stretches with no hot water, a meal that came down to half a cup of rice and two tortillas. No soap, deodorant, or toothpaste.”
Jason Crow said the strain on service members and families on the Lincoln is “building week by week.” Pete Hegseth dismissed the accounts as “more fake news.”
Questions on the USS Lincoln
The reporting points to a carrier under sustained stress, with the overboard attempts coming alongside complaints about living conditions and repeated deployment extensions. What remains unresolved in the reporting is how many attempts occurred and whether Navy leaders will make immediate changes to the deployment or life aboard the ship.
