S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's show. Military families are sounding the alarm about dangerous conditions aboard the San Diego based USS Abraham Lincoln. So what's being done about it? This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. The San Diego based USS Abraham Lincoln is entering its ninth month deployed in the Arabian Sea on board. Sailors and Marines are reporting dangerous conditions. Barely enough food , no hot water. Limited supply of basic essentials like toothpaste and soap , and extremely long shifts with no end in sight. Journalist Priya Sri that broke the story after speaking with more than a dozen family members about this. She's currently a Pentagon reporter for Miss Now and was formally a reporter here at KPBS. She joins us to talk about her reporting , along with KPBS military and veteran affairs reporter Andrew Dyer. Priya , Andrew , thanks for being here. And welcome.
S2: Thanks for having me.
S3: Thank you.
S1: So I have to start here because before we get into the details of all this. Priya , can you remind us what ship we're talking about here? Where is the USS Abraham Lincoln right now?
S4: Well , Jade , it's currently serving in relation to Operation Epic Fury. So it's close to the Strait of Hormuz. It left San Diego back in November , and it's basically been at sea , as you mentioned , for about nine months now. This is the second time their deployment has been extended. It was supposed to just be a standard seven month deployment , but there appears to be no end in sight. And so that's initially what caused me to reach out to some of the family members , because this specific aircraft carrier actually broke a modern day record in the Navy for the most number of continuous days at sea. It briefly stopped in Guam in December , and then it didn't make another port call until July. In Oman , as and as Andrew probably knows as well. Typically within aircraft carrier , these ships would stop every 30 to 45 days to get more supplies. And it would also give the sailors a break to sort of go out in town. And that was really important just for them to get rest. But also it's really important for their morale. Jade.
S1: Yeah , well , Andrew , talk a bit more about that. Only two short port calls. What's the significance of that?
S2: Well , it's really significant whenever you're on the ship yourself and you know , you work seven days a week , you don't get a weekend , you don't get days off. The only time you get days off is if you hit port. Um , and the other big part of it is that that's also when you can go and go shopping and buy some things that you might need. So when you're leaving on deployment , you might bring enough stuff , you know , to get you until the first port call. Um , but if you don't ever hit that port , then you're going to run out of I'm talking like , personal toiletries and your little snacks and stuff that you you can't count on the ship's store to keep everything in stock all the time or your brand or whatever , so you can't restock. And so you're depending on either a port call or a care package from home. And if you have disruptions in mail or if you aren't hitting ports , then you're going to run out of your stuff. And that's a big part of what we're hearing about.
S1: And you speak about this from personal experience.
S2: Oh yeah , I used to bring extra stuff and sell it to the people who didn't plan. Aha.
S1: Aha. Aha. I see. Well , um. Ingenious there. Uh , Priya , you spoke with more than a dozen family members. Some revealed their names , others spoke anonymously. What did they share with you about what life is like on the ship right now? Yeah.
S4: Yeah. So they told me about some pretty horrific conditions , including they were alleging that there were moldy showers , that some of the toilets were not working , that the laundry facilities on the ship were broken for weeks at a time , that sometimes their loved ones didn't have access to hot water when they were showering. But I think the biggest thing they wanted to emphasize is that when you're talking about the flight deck of an aircraft carrier , this is one of the most dangerous places in the military. Even if you're not in a time of war , you have really high speed aircraft that are launching and landing there. You have things like bombs and munitions that are moving around on the flight deck at a really fast pace. It's extremely loud on a flight deck , so if you're exposed to that level of noise for long periods of time , that can really lead to long term injuries like hearing loss. And so if you add all of that in combination with the fact that they haven't gotten these poor calls because this has been a record setting deployment , they're worried that this could lead to exhaustion , which could then lead to potentially deadly accidents. So that's the real crux of the alarm bells that they want it. They want to ring essentially to the public. They know obviously when you sign up for the military , you know , I've been telling folks that they they know they're not expecting some Caribbean Carnival cruise with the buffet and , you know , a hot tub. They understand that the conditions are going to be difficult. But I think also another thing I heard across the board was that there is no clear mission from the administration right now. And that's what's making them extremely concerned , is that , you know , we've seen a memorandum of understanding. We saw a cease fire. We saw that all dissolved. So to them , they're very alarmed that this could potentially go on indefinitely. And they really want their loved ones to come home and to for at least another aircraft carrier to go out there to provide them some sort of relief. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. You're hearing about these conditions from family members. How are crew members able to communicate with their loved ones?
S4: So most of the time they're getting access to the internet. You know , I did also speak to a Fifth Fleet spokesperson who said , you know , that is one of the things that they're relying on to keep morale up , but that's only when the tactical situations allow. I will say that the Navy , you know , acknowledged the fact that there have been supply chain issues. They essentially said that when the Navy's Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain started getting bombed by the Iranians , that that really sort of messed up their supply chain. And they understood that at times it was difficult for them to replenish the supplies and the ship store. And also that was leading to basically food having to get rationed on the ship at certain points. But they said that since then things have been addressed and they're , you know , trying to improve the conditions to the best of their ability. And then just last week , there was this town hall in San Diego , where some of the families were able to actually confront the acting secretary of the Navy. And you heard a lot of these concerns come up there as well. And they unfortunately weren't able to give any , you know , solidified answers to the families as far as when the Lincoln is going to be able to come home. But they did say that the plan at this point is to send the Roosevelt , which is another aircraft carrier that's currently in San Diego , over to that , you know , area of operations to eventually relieve the Lincoln. But again , we don't know when any of that is going to happen.
S1: So no definite timeframe on that. Uh , Andrew , you know , the crew has only had two days off the Lincoln. Um , and since it left San Diego , just just two days off there in November is when , you know , they they left. But what are the safety concerns around this when it comes to deployment that long?
S2: Well , one thing that they tell you is you always have to walk around the ship assuming that everything there is trying to kill you , right? Like , even the doors can sever fingers and stuff. So you're always supposed to keep your head on the swivel , you know , when you walk through the hangar bay. You know , I mean , I think everybody who's been on a carrier has hit their head on the wing or on a on an aircraft before. Like , you just have to be careful. Um , now , I wanted to talk about this , this replacement carrier , because the Roosevelt is actually in doing an exercise called RimPac right now. They're out in the Pacific by Hawaii. And the other San Diego based carrier , the Carl Vinson , has been has been doing workups to go on deployment , um , all summer. They've recently did their , uh , their carrier qualifications with their air wing. So it looks like the Vinson is also getting ready to deploy. I don't know which ship may get out there and relieve the Lincoln , but , um. Nine months is highly unusual for a West Coast carrier to remain at sea. And I think , you know , a a normal deployment , you kind of tolerate the supplies , you kind of expect it. But once you get to this nine month part where you don't know when you're coming home , um , that's where every little issue , even if it's a somewhat routine issue , is magnified because , you know , nine months is a very long time to stay at sea.
S1: And to be on such on high alert like that , too , as you mentioned. Yes.
S2: Yes. So whenever you're in the middle of like doing airstrikes , you have flight ops running , uh , you know , you might have 18 hours of flight operations per day , depending on the , the tempo of your , of your sorties. So , um , it is a more intense work environment if you are conducting operations. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. Um. Priya. In April , several news outlets published photos of small portions aboard the ship. Small food portions. Military officials called those reports fake news. What did families tell you about those reports , though?
S4: Yeah , they said they absolutely were not fake news. You know , at the time , the Chief of Naval Operations , Admiral Darrell Cordell , and then also Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that , you know , everything was fine. They subsequently posted pictures of the chow halls on the ship with , you know , lots of different food options. But I'm still hearing from the families that there are still issues regarding food. And in both of those town halls that occurred last week , we heard directly from Navy leaders saying that , listen , we're never going to be able to get fresh fruits and vegetables onto the ship because by the time we can get them out there , they all spoil. And they said that they're attempting to get to the point where the sailors will at least have two different protein options. But I think again , it goes back to the exhaustion , right? Nutrition is so important to sustain these sailors and Marines as they're working these incredibly long shifts. And I think one thing I also want to emphasize is that , you know , it's not just the Lincoln that had a record setting deployment , the forward , which also was in that part of the world after having been near Venezuela , they hit a record for the longest deployment in modern history for an aircraft carrier. And so that was like another thing that I heard repeatedly from family members is that when they turn on the news , they see so much talk about the depletion of our stockpiles of weapons and munitions because of this war in Iran , or the fact that the gas prices are going up and they feel as though what's lost in this conversation from lawmakers and what you see on cable news channels is the conversation about the sailors and the Marines , who are sort of in the middle of all of this , and they're the ones whose lives are being affected. They're missing the birth of their children. They're missing , you know , the death of loved ones , real life events. And they have families that are sitting right there in San Diego who are waiting for them to come home and waiting to make life decisions about when they're going to move and enroll their kids in school because they have no idea when this deployment is ever going to end. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. How how have military officials responded to your latest reporting of all this.
S3: Well you know we it was really.
S4: I was lucky in the sense that I had sources who were able to tell me directly about this town hall meeting that happened at Naval Air Station North Island. And so that was a really unfiltered look at the acting Secretary of the Navy , Hong Kao , speaking directly to the families. And at times the family members were crying. Um , one woman actually stood up at one point and said that she finds it difficult to feel proud of her husband because he has expressed guilt after seeing news stories about innocent civilians in Iran being killed , and that comment was actually met with applause. So it was a very tense , kind of awkward meeting between the Navy leaders and the family members who said they really don't feel as though the Navy and the administration as a whole is doing enough to have these service members back. So , you know , a lot of folks in the military give credit to these leaders for having this face to face meeting. They you know , they said that that and a lot of the families there acknowledged that as well. They said they were thankful for the opportunity to finally talk to Navy leadership. But it was definitely , you know , a very emotional meeting , I would say. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Andrew. What from what you're hearing , how is the San Diego community reacting to to these reports?
S2: Well , you have a mix like you have a lot of Navy veteran type folks who kind of they don't trust everything they hear. You know , like I said , you know , you go through stuff like this on these deployments and a lot of folks , a lot of the conversation I've seen is just kind of like , yeah , this happens every deployment. But , you know , this is an extraordinary deployment. It is an extraordinarily long amount of time. They aren't hitting ports. And , you know , the Lincoln is supposed to go up to Bremerton next year to go up into the yards. This is something that all of the San Diego based nuclear aircraft carriers do periodically. Bremerton is the only shipyard on the West Coast that has a drydock large enough for a Nimitz class aircraft carrier. So what happens is , when somebody's got to go up to the yards , um , they will relocate their families for the year. Um , optionally. Or your family can stay here and the sailor goes by themselves. Um , now some people have kids in school. You don't want to move. You don't change schools. You know , the ships coming back to San Diego. So it's very difficult. And they can't make these plans or have these conversations right now. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Well , this is something that we will continue to follow , and hopefully the families have some recourse in this. I've been speaking with Andrew Dyer , KPBS military and veteran affairs reporter , also prehistory , the Pentagon reporter for M.S. now. You can find links to her reporting on KPBS as well as Andrew's Priya Andrew. Thank you both so very much for your work in your reporting.
S5: Thank you. Thanks.
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.
