CRUCIAL QUOTE
“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,” Levin said of life aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. “No soap, deodorant or toothpaste.”
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Key background
The USS Abraham Lincoln, which functions as a mobile air base at sea, left its homeport in San Diego on Nov. 21 for a routine Pacific deployment. The carrier was redirected to the Middle East in January, ahead of the U.S. and Israel’s attacks on Iran, and has been stationed in the Arabian Sea ever since. Officials have been unable to tell families when the Lincoln will return home, Stars and Stripes reported, adding “uncertainty” over when a deployment will end can take a “significant toll” on servicemembers. Vice Adm. Joseph Cahill, commander of Naval Surface Forces, told families at a meeting in San Diego earlier this month he heard them “loud and clear” regarding the impact the extended deployment is having on sailors and families, and said the warship is equipped with deployment-resilience counselors and chaplains.
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BIG NUMBER
Six months. That had been the modern-day standard deployment for the Navy’s carrier strike groups, but too few in service and too many hotspots have led to increasingly long terms. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the largest and most advanced aircraft carrier ever built, holds the modern deployment record of 326 days at sea. Its deployment ended in May.
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further reading
ForbesLong Deployments May Be The Norm For The U.S. Navy’s Aircraft CarriersBy Peter Suciu