Congressional delegation visits USS Abraham Lincoln

S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on this episode of KPBS Midday Edition. Lawmakers went inside the USS Abraham Lincoln to see conditions for themselves. We'll talk about what they discovered. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. As the USS Abraham Lincoln makes its way back to San Diego , there's still a lot of questions about conditions aboard the ship. We've heard reports of limited food , hot water , and basic essentials like soap and toothpaste. All of that , and only two short port calls. And now we know that at least eight service members attempted suicide during the ten month deployment. Well , yesterday , lawmakers traveled aboard the Lincoln to see what it's like inside. That group included San Diego Representative Sarah Jacobs. They spoke with sailors and Marines on board to find out what life is like on the ship. Joining me to talk about what we know is Andrew Dyer. He's military and veteran affairs reporter for KPBS. Andrew , hi. Hey.

S2: Hey. Thanks for having me back.

S1: Glad to have you here. So , what do we know about the the inspection that happened on the USS Abraham Lincoln yesterday?

S2: Well , all we know is really what you know , Jacobs is saying on her , on her website that , you know , they met with leadership on the ship. They met with sailors and Marines. And , you know , she says that the sailors and Marines have given her a very different story than what the official line has been from the administration about those conditions. And she's , you know , demanding , you know , further investigations. And she wants the inspector general to to look into it.

S1: And you reached out to Jacobs?

S2: Yes , yes. They were not able to to speak about it specifically today , but , um , they were kind enough to refer me to their website. Where? Where she had the statement there. Hmm.

S1: Hmm. How has this deployment of the Lincoln been been like , different from other deployments?

S2: Oh , in a lot of ways , really the length it's already been more than ten months. That is very unusual or until now has been very unusual. Um , it used to be an eight month deployment. Was was pretty long , but , um. Yeah , now we're at ten months. Um , not only was it extraordinarily long , but it was also there. They didn't hit port for for more than 200 days. They were consecutively at sea. Um , and then the other way it was very different. Was that the main supply hub in the Fifth Fleet area of operation , which is , uh , Bahrain in the Persian Gulf , was damaged very early , uh , by Iran in the war. So , um , the ship was relying on a much more distant , uh , outpost , an island called Diego Garcia to , uh , to relay supplies to and from the ship. So , um , yeah , whenever you combine all of those , those factors , you kind of get what , what we've seen in reports about , you know , not enough food , not enough fresh , fresh fruit and vegetables , um , running low on certain hygienic items. Um , and then of course , mail. Because when you have limited supply capacity , you have to triage it and get the most essential things to the ship first. And when you're fighting a war , that's , that's missiles and bombs and jet fuel.

S1: And these ships , they get their supplies restocked during port calls. Is that how that works or.

S2: No , you do get some stuff when you hit port , but really it's it's done by the , uh , merchant Mariners , the , the , the US Navy , uh , supply ships that are manned by civilian crews. Um , they pull up next to the ship , they shoot these little lines from one ship to the other , and then they'll just take a pallets of stuff and just we'll them on over on these , on these ropes and cables and stuff. Um , and you'll have , you'll have a razz like every , every couple days whenever you're doing like operations. So mostly it is actually done at sea. Um , also they can have like helicopters bringing stuff back and forth from , from a supply ship. Um , it just depends on what you're getting and , um , what they have for you.

S1: So the supply shortage then is completely separate from the port call issue. Yes , yes. Two issues that are happening simultaneously. Yeah. So. So what was the reason for not having supplies restocked on the ship? Did it has have we heard from the Pentagon on that or.

S2: Nothing official other than , you know , because of the the constraints of losing Diego , um , of losing and Bahrain and relying on Diego , Diego Garcia that , um , they just had to kind of reprioritize , uh , what got to the ship first. And that would have been materials to to fight the war. Hmm.

S1: Hmm. Um , and as far as the port calls are concerned for people who have not been on a USS carrier , what is the the physical and mental toll of that like?

S2: Oh gosh , it's so hard to. I mean , imagine if you just never had a day off of work , right? Like , Saturday is a workday , Sunday is a workday. And Monday is , of course , a work. You know , you just work seven days a week. And so when you hit port , you know , that is when you get your time off. That is when you can go and buy your own supplies , buy your own snacks , buy your own whatever you want. You can just go and sleep all day in the hotel if you want to. You know , that's the only kind of , uh , rest and relaxation time that you get whenever you're on deployment. So if you're not hitting port , then you're not getting very much downtime.

S1: But is that a luxury that just doesn't really happen in in conflict when you're in conflict or war?

S2: No , no , it really , um , you would hit ports? It depends on what kind of ship you're on. You know , the smaller ships have an easier time finding ports to go to. But like , for the carriers , for these Nimitz class carriers , there's only certain ports that can accommodate a giant nuclear aircraft carriers. So , um , we don't know. And there's been no official word from the Pentagon as to why they had to keep the Lincoln at sea doing operations and without hitting ports. But if you look at what they were doing and that was fighting the war with with Iran , um , there was there wasn't another carrier that could go and fill in the gap to give them time to , to go all the way to , to Thailand or Australia , Indonesia or wherever to , to get their port calls. So , um , they were just , um , the other place that you would hit port and in the Middle East was Bahrain. Um , so when you're doing operations , you know , the carriers would pull into Bahrain. And even though Bahrain isn't the best Liberty port in the world. You know , there's a Navy exchange , there's a beer tent. There's , you know , hang out on bass and get a little bit of downtime. But , um , with Bahrain being under attack and under threat of missile strikes from Iran , that was off the table. So , um , just they haven't said it officially , but that would likely be the reason.

S1: Be the reason. Um , how significant a problem are suicide attempts for sailors on deployment , given there were eight attempts?

S2: Well , you know , the the eight attempt number. That's that's for the battle group. So it's not just the Lincoln. It's also for the the destroyers that were , um , out there with the Lincoln , uh , while it was conducting these operations. We don't know the actual breakdown of of which ship had which attempts. Um , but you know , CNN who originally broke the story , um , they're reporting they said that the eight attempts over the course of ten months was kind of in line with what the Navy sees Navy wide , or at least did the last year. We have the numbers for and that's 2024. So while you know deployment is stressful and a long deployment with no ports , you know , these are extra stressors. Um , it's tough to draw that causal relationship , that causal relationship between like this is why maybe they had these attempts , because those attempts may not be an outlier , that that might not be a statistically significant number. Um , we just don't know for sure. But , you know , sailors and people in the military , you know , have issues with suicide for any number of reasons and , you know , whether they're deployed or not deployed. Um , these are stressful jobs. And we see we see this type of , uh , you know , we do see elevated rates of suicide in the military.

S1: Hopefully there is treatment available on these carriers. Yeah.

S2: Yeah. So there's like a , you know , there's a psychiatrist , there's a mental health department with medical , um , there's several chaplains who who are there for counseling? Um , there's a there's a therapy dog on this cruise. So you can go pet a pet a dog. Oh.

S1: Oh. That's great. Well , um , you know , yesterday the USS Theodore Roosevelt left San Diego on deployment. What can you tell us about that?

S2: Yeah , we knew this was coming. Um , the Navy's been signaling this for a while that the Roosevelt would replace the Lincoln. Um , it couldn't get it there in time. So the Washington , which is based in Japan , relieved the Lincoln Washingtons in the Middle East. Now , Lincoln is on the way home. Now Roosevelt is on the way out there. It will relieve the Washington. So if you're keeping track of the the moving pieces in your head , um , they'll they'll be out there and the Navy's preparing those sailors and those families saying , hey , get ready for another long deployment. But they are also saying that they've fixed some of these issues that the Lincoln saw.

S1: All right. Well , I know this is something we'll continue to watch. The Lincoln is expected back when real quickly.

S2: I mean they could be back any any day Really? Okay.

S1: Okay. All right. Well , we'll keep our eyes open. I've been speaking with Andrew Dyer. He's military and veteran affairs reporter for KPBS. Andrew , thank you so very much.

S2: Thank you.

S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.