The United States has turned its Pacific-based aircraft carrier USS George Washington toward the Middle East amid reports of mental health and supply issues aboard the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been supporting the American war against Iran so far.
The carrier, along with a cruiser and a destroyer, has since been spotted crossing the Singapore Strait. The concerns over troops’ morale about Lincoln emerged even as US President Donald Trump claimed that America has control over the Strait of Hormuz and that he will “keep it. The Navy conceded that the conflict created a “highly contested environment where traditional supply hubs in the Middle East were disrupted by combat actions. While renewed hostilities between the US and Iran have calmed in recent weeks, the Navy has reimposed a blockade on Iranian ports in the crucial Strait of Hormuz.
The USS George Washington left port in Da Nang, Vietnam, last week, a Navy statement said. That, in turn, led to shortages and loss of mail aboard the aircraft carrier, the Navy said in a statement. “Leadership prioritised mission-critical supplies: first food, then hygiene items, then mail,” the statement said, before assuring that sailors aboard the ship now have access to clean water and “healthy meal options. “The Lincoln’s prolonged deployment is especially significant because it is occurring in the context of continuing military operations against Iran and the possibility that substantial US naval forces will be required in the region for an extended period,” Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote in a letter to Navy leadership asking for a response to several questions. Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego, a Marine Corps veteran, said on social media that he is looking to take a bipartisan delegation on an official oversight visit to the ship and that the way sailors are being treated is “not just disgusting; it’s dangerous. The Trump administration has offered no clarity on how it intends to wind down the war, with Hegseth claiming that the US can maintain the blockade “indefinitely.”
