“The USS Abraham Lincoln crushed their deployment and will return home soon as part of a planned rotation. Details will come but let me be clear: the safety and security of our Sailors and Marines always comes first,” Cao said in a statement.
Cao said that Lincoln’s deployment, which has stretched for over 260 days since departing San Diego in November, was extended because the mission “demanded it,” acknowledging that deployments are “hard,” combat operations make them “harder,” and that war is “hell,” therefore “normal routines are disrupted.”
“One of the hardest aspects about warfighting beyond knowingly placing our service members in harm’s way is that even with the best planning and communication, change and uncertainty will always be in play,” Cao, who became the acting secretary in April following the ouster of Navy Secretary John Phelan, said. “Our success depends on how we adapt.”
Cao’s lengthy statement comes as news outlets reported on the poor conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, including supply challenges, dwindling mental health of some sailors, rotten food and moldy showers, prompting Democrats in Congress to call for an investigation into the state of the Lincoln, one of the two aircraft carriers in the U.S. Central Command (Centcom) theater.
Cao claimed that media outlets are trying to paint “our warriors as victims.”
But he also acknowledged that a “small” number of mental health cases were treated without a loss of life, adding that meal plans were “adjusted when fresh resupply was unavailable, without a single meal being missed” and that sailors’ calls home were limited when the “operational threat was too high.”
Other Democratic lawmakers pressed the Navy to permit a bipartisan congressional visit to the Lincoln to inspect the conditions of the vessel amid reports that some sailors attempted to jump off the aircraft carrier.
Last week, Cao and other Navy leaders met with family members of sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier as the moral abroad the ship wanes.
The Pentagon sent the USS George Washington to replace the Lincoln, which has been backing U.S. forces during its war against Iran. There are about 5,000 sailors and Marines on the Lincoln.
Read the full report at thehill.com.
