U.S. "Lincoln" Sailors Face Mental Health Challenges

According to a report by Reference News Network on August 24, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph published an article on August 18 titled “USS Abraham Lincoln is Struggling with Issues of U.S. Navy Culture,” written by retired Royal Navy officer Tom Sharp. The article is excerpted as follows:

The USS Abraham Lincoln has been at sea for over 260 days continuously. Aside from a brief stop in Oman in early July, it has been at sea since leaving Guam at the end of last year. The duration of the deployment is long, with no proper rest period.

Various claims about the food on board, cleanliness, and the mental health of the sailors have begun to emerge. These need to be taken seriously. But for me, a more important question may be overshadowed: do the crew of this aircraft carrier and its task force still have confidence in this mission?

The U.S. Navy's official statement claims that since being deployed to the Middle East at the New Year, the Lincoln has conducted over 10,000 flight operations.

After such a long time, the number of takeoff and landing cycles on the deck is numbing; if a sailor's work or living quarters are near the flight deck, the noise can be deafening.

This is part of a broader pattern. The USS Gerald R. Ford recently completed a 326-day deployment, the longest since the Vietnam War. It at least had a few port rests, some of which were forced due to engineering issues or a laundry fire.

The USS Ford also attracted various rumors about food, cleanliness, and hygiene throughout its deployment.

Every ship has crew members who complain to their families; on a ship with 5,600 people, there will be many such individuals. Traditionally, it is believed that when the complaints stop, you should actually be worried. Similarly, the food on board has historically been inconsistent, especially when it is at the end of a long supply chain.

Perhaps the “can-do, will-do” mentality is ingrained in the U.S. Navy's DNA. However, the problem with always saying “Aye, sir” is that sooner or later, something or someone will not hold up.

In 2017, the U.S. Navy encountered four serious incidents in the Pacific—one grounding and three collisions, two of which were fatal—and the internal review report pointed out that the crux of the issue was this: in such a culture, “can-do, will-do” normalized long-term fatigue and undermined training.

The U.S. Navy also has a habit of using its ships very harshly. During my rotation in the Gulf region, we Brits usually kept our duty time to under 30 days. The U.S. Navy, however, feels that a 45-day duty is no big deal, just a night in port and back out to sea. This may look impressive on the surface, but the actual combat effectiveness is often less than ours because they are too fatigued.

They have a strict hierarchy in all aspects. This absolutely stifles the ability of subordinates to speak the truth to their superiors. Perhaps this is why they operate this way. It may also be one reason they can endure such long deployments. But does that make it right?

The Lincoln strike group is now at least seeing the shadow of relief. The USS Ronald Reagan departed from Da Nang on August 5, expected to take over the Lincoln's position, but no return date has been announced.

For me, there is a more serious issue hidden within this.

Every deployment inevitably requires some “sales talk” to boost morale among the entire crew. They will serve you because it is a requirement of the system; but if you can truly get them to work together with you, operations will be smoother and more sustainable. The leadership of the Lincoln must have made tremendous efforts for this, even as they themselves bear immense pressure.

Sometimes this is easy. The last time I was deployed in the Gulf region, we spent most of our time coordinating anti-submarine operations for the U.S. carrier strike group. This mission needs no explanation; it is inherently persuasive: it is exactly the purpose for which our ship was built, and the reason for the training of the crew. However, it was hard to convince people during those weeks when we were conducting boarding inspections in the sweltering heat. This low-level, seemingly fruitless intelligence-gathering work is not glamorous, and deployments merely for the sake of demonstrating military presence are the same.

For me, this is the real concern regarding the Lincoln and all the ships deployed with it. Once sailors begin to feel that it is meaningless, or worse—feel that the civilian command chain does not support them—that is real trouble, and it can deteriorate rapidly.

The shadow of 2017 is everywhere, even larger now, reappearing on the aircraft carrier. This is more concerning than the sporadic photos of poor food that have circulated. (Translated by Ge Xuelai)