Bay Area Lawmakers Raise Alarm Over Reported Conditions Aboard USS Lincoln
Bay Area lawmakers are asking the Navy to answer for conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier with a crew of 5,000 sailors that was deployed over eight months ago in the U.S. war against Iran.
Reps. John Garamendi, Ro Khanna, Mark DeSaulnier and Mike Thompson were among 52 House Democrats who on Friday signed a letter addressed to Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, citing allegations from sailors’ families of food shortages, hygiene problems and mental health strain.
The Lincoln departed from San Diego on Nov. 21, originally slated to return in May. The letter said the deployment has been extended twice and remains in a combat zone three months past that date, “with no anticipated redeployment date in sight.” The ship has pulled into port twice since deploying — once in December and once for a single day in July — a 208-day stretch that the crew called a “modern record.”
Garamendi, who leads Democrats on the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee, told KQED that the war has been “nothing but a disaster for our service members,” whom he said are contending with shifting objectives and little clarity about the mission. Garamendi said he would use his subcommittee role to press for answers.
DeSaulnier told KQED that President Donald Trump started the war “in a way that didn’t consult with Congress sufficiently and was very thoughtless.” He said he is primarily concerned for the young sailors sent into a war zone.
“You’re sending people out into a war zone that we created,” he said. “You’re exposing them to very difficult risks.”
DeSaulnier said the purpose of the letter was to ask the administration directly whether the deployment’s extension had been thought through.
“These reports are not political conjecture; they come from sailors’ worried family members,” the members wrote. They say numerous sailors have reportedly tried to go overboard, citing an Aug. 11 Navy Times report, and that since April, families have raised concerns about food quality. Those grievances culminated in what the letter calls a “fever pitch” at an Aug. 6 town hall in San Diego, where families addressed Cao directly.
MS NOW interviewed a dozen relatives of sailors and Marines aboard the ship this month. Family members described moldy showers, broken laundry facilities, stretches without hot water, and the ship’s store frequently running out of basic toiletries. One mother said her son had spent days subsisting on rationed portions.
A spokesperson for the Navy’s 5th Fleet, Cmdr. Joseph Hontz, told MS NOW that supplies had run low only briefly and that the ship and others in the region have enough food to sustain operations, with fresh produce being the most difficult item to deliver before it spoils. He said the crew has access to mental health and chaplain teams and to fitness facilities, and disputed accounts of damage to the flight deck.
The Pentagon completely disputes the families’ accounts. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the reports had been “completely misrepresented.” U.S. Central Command posted that claims of a spike in suicidal ideation are false, insisting that the Lincoln has among the highest reenlistment rates in the carrier fleet and that a sailor who went overboard Aug. 3 was recovered safely.
Trump was dismissive when asked about the deployment on Friday, saying the ship would be replaced “with another very similar ship.”
Responding to the denials from Hegseth and CENTCOM, DeSaulnier said the burden is on them. “They’re calling the families liars,” he told KQED. He said the Pentagon should demonstrate that the extended deployment has not produced the consequences which families are describing.
The letter also asks how the Navy would hold its position in the Indo-Pacific if the USS George Washington is dispatched to relieve the Lincoln.
Garamendi’s office said it has not confirmed whether any of his constituents are aboard the Lincoln.