Rusty state of USS Abraham Lincoln after marathon deployment shocks observers

The USS Abraham Lincoln, deployed since November 2025 in support of US operations against Venezuela and the war on Iran, broke the US Navy's record for longest deployment without a port call -- more than 260 days at sea -- amid reports from military publications Military Times and Stars & Stripes of food shortages, broken plumbing and crew exhaustion among its roughly 5,000 sailors; family members said several sailors' mental health had deteriorated to the point of attempted suicides by jumping overboard, though the Navy disputed a 'mental health crisis' was underway. Trump dismissed the concerns when asked by reporters on 14 August, saying family members weren't actually worried and that the deployment hadn't been 'nearly long enough,' while confirming the USS George Washington was en route from the Pacific to relieve the Lincoln, expected to reach Oman around 22 August -- leaving the Pacific without a US carrier for the first time as three carriers (Lincoln, George Washington, George HW Bush) converged on the Middle East.

Twenty-two members of Congress, led by Rep. Pat Ryan, sent a letter to the acting Navy Secretary on 19 August demanding answers, noting the Lincoln's troubles followed nearly identical reports about the USS Gerald Ford, which had similarly broken deployment-length records before rotating home in April, and warning the pattern suggested the Pentagon 'is not adapting quickly enough' to the strain of the six-month Iran war; experts linked supply shortages partly to Iranian strikes on US regional bases, notably Bahrain's naval facility early in the war. A retired Navy officer and Trump-aligned veterans' advocate called the reports '99% hype,' but when the Lincoln finally docked in Thailand on 3 September after nine months at sea, its visibly rusted hull drew widespread public criticism; naval experts told the BBC the wear, while unusual given the deployment's length, was not itself abnormal.