Navy carrier in Mideast at sea for more than 200 days, testing crew resilience

NAPLES, Italy — The USS Abraham Lincoln has spent nearly seven months at sea, a grueling pace of operations that has kept the aircraft carrier and its crew on duty in the Middle East since January with no clear end in sight.

On Monday, Lincoln reached its 207th consecutive day at sea, breaking a previous record set by the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The only port call Lincoln has made during its current deployment was a brief stop in Guam on Dec. 11-12, according to the Navy.

The carrier departed San Diego on Nov. 21 for routine operations, the service said.

Lincoln and its crew of about 5,000 personnel have spent months on station in the Arabian Sea supporting U.S. military operations aimed at compelling Iran to release its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz and abandon its nuclear ambitions.

The U.S. operations have included airstrikes against military facilities and other sites in Iran, protecting ships in the strait and, until last month, maintaining a naval blockade against Iranian ports.

There are signs that the operational tempo may be taking a toll on sailors’ physical and mental well-being after months of limited contact with their families and little respite from 24/7 operations.

“Our mental health and physical health is in danger,” one Lincoln sailor recently wrote to family members. “We need help.”

The family shared the message with Stars and Stripes on the condition of anonymity out of concerns of retaliation.

That plea was especially worrisome for one family member who is concerned that their sailor may be among those potentially facing a mental health crisis.

“It’s worrisome and it’s kind of heartbreaking,” the family member said. “… You can’t do anything.”

Other sailors aboard the carrier have acknowledged the strain and its impact on mental health but also credited the crew’s fortitude.

“We are tired,” Lt. Cmdr. Alexis Travis wrote in a public post to Instagram on June 16. “This crew has shown grit, grace, resilience, flexibility, kindness, and unmatched ability to do the darn thing.”

The well-being of U.S. forces at sea and on land in the Middle East is a priority, Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said in a statement Thursday. He added that service members were receiving the best resources, logistical support, and care possible in a forward-operating environment.

“We firmly believe that every operational success begins and ends with our people,” Hawkins said. “There is no military on earth that globally supports its warfighters like the U.S. military.”

Lincoln is among more than 20 Navy ships and thousands of sailors and Marines in the Middle East. That contingent includes the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush and the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group.

In all, there are more than 50,000 American troops in the Middle East, according to CENTCOM.

Typically, Navy ships on deployment make regular port calls that not only provide an opportunity for vessel maintenance, repairs and resupply but also give sailors and Marines a much-needed break from their jobs.

For example, deployed aircraft carriers usually make a port call every 30 to 45 days, giving sailors the chance to get off the ship, sightsee, dine out and relax.

But operational needs can disrupt those plans. The crew of Eisenhower spent more than five months in the Red Sea in 2024 without a port call defending against attacks on shipping by Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen.

Previously, Eisenhower accrued 206 days at sea in 2020 due to COVID-19 mitigation procedures, according to the Navy. In 2002, the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt spent 160 consecutive days at sea as part of the post-9/11 response, the service said.

In the case of Eisenhower’s Red Sea deployment, officials worked to improve the quality of life for sailors by adding onboard Wi-Fi to improve communication with family and friends.

Special attention also was given to ensuring sailors received adequate rest, and the ship held hundreds of events, such as art sessions, bingo and a singing competition, to help ease the pain of high-stress operations.

Recent social media posts and messages to family are not the first indications from Lincoln sailors highlighting potential quality of life issues during the ship’s current deployment.

A USA Today story published in April highlighted concerns of unidentified families worried their sailors were not getting enough to eat.

The article “grossly mischaracterized” food service aboard the ships and the accompanying photos were not taken on a Navy vessel but rather at an ashore dining facility, Adm. Darryl Caudle, chief of naval operations, said at the time.

Travis also pushed back on Instagram comments suggesting that sailors commiserating about quality of life during long deployments knew what they signed up for and that the conditions were not as difficult of those previously faced by other sailors.

“Actually literally no one signed up for this and yet here we are, still doing it safely and successfully,” Travis, a mental health advocate, wrote in a June 17 Instagram post.

The difficulties and struggles of one crew do not diminish the fight against the same issues faced by other crews, she added.

“If we were all on the same team a little more, I bet we’d have fewer problems building community, connecting with civilians and advocating for veterans,” she wrote.