By Phil Stewart
PANAMA CITY, Aug 13 (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that reports about poor conditions aboard aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East were “completely misrepresented.”
Two military-focused outlets, Navy Times and Stars and Stripes, reported suicide attempts and declining morale on the 5,000-person ship, which has been at sea since November 2025.
The carrier has been in the Middle East since January, supporting the U.S. war with Iran.
“We make sure every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment. Some deployments are longer than others, and I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody. What they do in those high seas in those austere conditions with less port calls — it’s incredible,” Hegseth told reporters during a visit to Panama.
Typically naval deployments are for between six and nine months, but during times of conflict, that can be extended.
Extended deployments can pose enormous strain on crews’ mental health, particularly in wartime, and have always been a challenge for the U.S. Navy. Sailors must maintain a heightened state of alert and readiness, especially with the threat of drone and missile attack from Iran.
A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the George Washington aircraft carrier is heading to the region with the intention of replacing the Lincoln carrier. That move was pre-planned, the official said.
Democratic lawmakers are unhappy about the extended deployment of the Lincoln carrier and the conditions on the ship.
“There have been widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns, and disruptions in the mail system, which have caused many care packages in route to the ship to be lost in transit for months,” U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal wrote to Hegseth and the Navy secretary this week.
When asked about reports of poor conditions on the Abraham Lincoln, White House spokesperson Olivia Wales said President Donald Trump and Hegseth were committed to ensuring the U.S. military was “equipped with the resources necessary to counter any threat to the United States”.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart, additional reporting by Idrees Ali and Steve Holland; writing by Michelle Nichols;Editing by David Ljunggren, Andy Sullivan and Nia Williams)
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