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US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that the USS George Washington aircraft carrier strike group had arrived in the Arabian Sea. The USS Washington will replace the USS Abraham Lincoln after multiple reports of horrendous conditions for sailors on the aircraft carrier.
“US Sailors work on the flight deck of USS George Washington, Aug. 20, as the aircraft carrier transits the Arabian Sea,” CENTCOM posted on X Thursday. “The George Washington Carrier Strike Group is operating in the Middle East during a scheduled deployment after arriving in the CENTCOM theater yesterday.”
The arrival of the USS Washington will allow the USS Lincoln to return to the US. The USS Washington’s presence in the Middle East also leaves the US without an aircraft carrier in East Asia.
The USS Lincoln was called back to the US after multiple outlets reported shortages, suicide attempts, and plummeting morale on the aircraft carrier.
“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,” Senator Richard Blumenthal wrote in his letter to the Pentagon that was published earlier this month.
The Senator said the condition facing the sailors on the aircraft carrier raises questions about the viability of the war against Iran. The conditions “also raise a broader question: whether the Navy can sustain the operational tempo now being demanded of its carrier force.” He continued, “Particularly as this Administration repeatedly commits US forces to conflicts of its own choosing and increasingly relies on aircraft carriers to sustain those operations.”
The Lincoln has been at sea since November, meaning the crew has been deployed for over 250 days, far longer than the scheduled seven months between port calls.
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