Senator Ruben Gallego calls carrier’s months-long deployment a ‘deep problem’ as wellbeing concerns mount
Democrats on Sunday intensified their demands for answers from the Trump administration over conditions onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln as the aircraft carrier’s nearly nine-month deployment continued fueling concern over crew morale, mental health and living conditions.
Ruben Gallego, a Democratic senator from Arizona, said on Sunday that problems onboard the Lincoln had kept mounting – and he blamed the carrier’s prolonged deployment on the unresolved war that Donald Trump started in February with Iran as well as lackluster leadership in general from the Republican president’s administration.
One US sailor’s mother asks: ‘My son signed up to serve his country. But why isn’t his country serving him?’
Naval families with loved ones deployed for months on US warships amid the Iran war have reacted with fury to Donald Trump and the defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s dismissal of their concerns about the extreme pressures and dire conditions they are enduring.
The Guardian has talked to three naval families who have been following the physical and mental stresses bearing down on their relatives with mounting alarm. The families, with loved ones on board the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Tripoli, all spoke anonymously for fear of retribution against their active duty relatives.
The administration is veering wildly in its response to the national security implications of A.I. as China, America’s main technological and military rival, charges ahead.
Donald Trump has downplayed concerns about US sailors enduring a record-setting deployment of nearly nine months onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on Friday, saying the deployment was “not nearly long enough” as concerns mount over mental health and supply issues onboard the aircraft carrier.
The US president made the comments during a brief exchange with reporters before flying to New York for an event highlighting falling violent crime rates across the US.
The U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln in San Diego in 2021. The aircraft carrier, with a crew of about 5,000 sailors, has been at sea for more than eight and a half months.
Defense secretary said conditions on aircraft carrier deployed in support of Iran war have been ‘completely misrepresented’
The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, insisted a wave of reports describing deteriorating conditions and mental health struggles onboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln “completely misrepresented” the situation, pushing back against growing congressional pressure over the ship’s record-breaking, nearly nine-month deployment.
“We make sure every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment,” Hegseth told reporters during a visit to Panama, adding that “some deployments are longer than others” and praising sailors enduring “high seas” and “austere conditions with less port calls”.
Republican senators have criticized the Pentagon for locking Democrats out of classified briefings on defense spending, warning that Pete Hegseth’s approach could jeopardize passage of Donald Trump’s record $1.5tn military budget increase.
The US defense secretary has made at least two trips to Capitol Hill in recent weeks to pitch the budget, but has repeatedly excluded Democrats from the closed-door sessions, according to lawmakers from both parties.
Donald Trump’s executive order on vaccines does not change the US recommendations for the shots – but experts say it does create confusion and doubt about vaccines, which will lead to more illness and possibly deaths among children and will make it harder for families and pediatricians to protect them.
The executive order was an attempt to reinstate sweeping changes to the vaccine schedule made earlier this year by Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services and a longtime vaccine opponent – changes that were later halted by a federal judge.
Representative Jason Crow asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to explain statements about his special adviser’s influence following a New York Times report.
Representative Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado, has asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to provide a written response clarifying his testimony by Sept. 10.
The Iranian strikes that killed three U.S. soldiers in Jordan show how quickly Iran’s war-fighting skills have evolved, as the Pentagon runs low on interceptors.
Iran has become a more skilled adversary as its war against the United States has progressed, learning how to evade U.S. air defenses as it widened the battlefield to include most of the Middle East.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unilaterally halted a weapons shipment to Ukraine on July 2 despite internal military assessments showing the aid would not compromise American military readiness, NBC News reported on July 4, citing three U.S. officials.
The pause in aid, which included critical air defense systems and ammunition, reportedly caught the State Department, members of Congress, Ukraine, and key European allies off guard.
Ukraine suffered one of the largest attacks on July 4, with President Volodymyr Zelensky calling for more air defense to protect civilians in the cities. The attack on Kyiv killed one person and injured 23 more.
A senior U.S. military review had concluded that while some munitions stockpiles, including precision weapons, were low, they had not fallen below critical thresholds, according to NBC. Despite this, Hegseth opted to stop the shipment. This is reportedly his third such move since February.
"We are not at any lower point, stockpile-wise, than we’ve been in the three-and-a-half years of the Ukraine conflict," Congressman Adam Smith the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said. Smith, who said his staff reviewed the Pentagon's figures, called the justification "disingenuous."
The shipment reportedly included dozens of Patriot interceptors, 155 mm artillery rounds, Hellfire missiles, guided missile systems (GMLRS), Stinger and AIM air-to-air missiles, and grenade launchers.
Two sources told NBC that some of the weapons had already been loaded onto trucks in Poland when the halt was ordered.
Zelensky recently called Patriot systems "real defenders of life," since Patriot missile systems are the best air defense in Ukraine's arsenal. They are considered to be the most effective measure against Russian ballistic missiles like Iskander and Kinzhal.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell described earlier the decision as part of a broader "capability review" to ensure U.S. forces remain equipped.
The halt has initiated debate over the future of U.S. support for Ukraine.
Lawmakers from both parties, including Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, expressed frustration at the lack of advance notice. "Now is the time to show Putin we mean business," McCaul wrote on X.
Republican Congressman Joe Wilson also reacted to the halt, warning of its consequences amid Russia's ongoing strikes.
"As Americans begin to enjoy the sounds of fireworks in celebration of our Nation's Independence, war criminal (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, who is losing his pathetic war, resorts to scorched earth tactics across Ukrainian cities that predate Moscow's existence," Wilson wrote.
Wilson said he is "confident the Department of Defense will advance President Trump’s objectives stated at The Hague to send additional air defense and approved weapons to help stop this absolute depravity, as allies have and must continue doing at a rapid pace."
Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick has requested an emergency White House briefing, warning the decision could cost lives.
Trump has denied that the U.S. paused shipments on July 3, contradicting both Pentagon confirmation and reporting.
"We haven't," Trump told a reporter. "We're giving weapons." He also claimed the Biden administration had "emptied out our whole country" and insisted Washington must prioritize its own defense.
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