US rushes new carrier to Middle East amid reports of mental health crisis on USS Lincoln

Carrier swap underway as Lincoln's record deployment draws scrutiny

The USS George Washington aircraft carrier has arrived in the Middle East, US Central Command announced on Thursday, and is expected to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln from a deployment that has become the longest for a US carrier since the Vietnam War era. The announcement came as a US official told The New York Times that the Lincoln began its journey back to the US on the same day, though no official return date has been set.

The Lincoln left its home port of San Diego on November 21, 2025, with a crew of roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines. It has now spent more than 270 continuous days at sea, a post-Vietnam War record, according to multiple reports. The ship was initially planned for a Pacific deployment before being redirected to the Middle East after the US war with Iran began on February 28.

US officials said the carrier swap is part of a previously planned rotation, not a direct response to the concerns surrounding the Lincoln. The Washington, which recently departed Da Nang and passed through the Singapore Strait and the Strait of Malacca, arrived in the region on Wednesday, according to CENTCOM.

Root cause: attack on Bahrain base

Reports from The New York Times and other outlets trace the supply problems aboard the Lincoln to an Iranian attack on Naval Support Activity Bahrain on February 28, the first day of the war. The base, which serves as the headquarters of the Fifth Fleet and houses a $25 million command center opened in 2004, was largely destroyed by missiles and drones, according to those reports.

With its main Persian Gulf hub knocked out, the Navy shifted to using its base on Diego Garcia, a UK-administered island in the Indian Ocean about 2,200 miles away, as a replacement logistics hub, an unidentified military official told the NYT. That distance made it harder to supply the Lincoln and also deprived the crew of a nearby liberty port for shore leave.

A Wall Street Journal report from late June detailed extensive damage to the Bahrain base from follow-up Iranian attacks, including damage to the command headquarters and at least a dozen other buildings, though no deaths were reported.

Conditions aboard the Lincoln: what families and officials say

Families of crew members have gone public with accounts of scarce, barely edible meals, moldy showers, broken toilets, and sporadic laundry service. Danielle Rappa, whose son serves on the ship, compared the conditions to the TV show "American Horror Story." Another mother, who spoke with NBC, said conditions improved in April after parents began complaining.

The wife of a sailor aboard the Lincoln told the Guardian that she has noticed a change in her husband's messages over the months. "There's less hope in the way he talks and less positive things that he has to say," she said. "He's just exhausted. It's a long, long deployment and it takes a toll." She described one of his meals as just "a couple of pieces of bacon and three or four chicken wings," adding, "To put it plainly, I just don't think they're getting enough calories."

Reports from the Navy Times and Stars and Stripes described food and water shortages, disrupted mail services, plumbing problems, and low morale. Senator Richard Blumenthal has reported shortages of essential supplies, water contamination, plumbing problems, safety concerns, deteriorating mental health, and mail disruptions, and he demanded a formal inquiry a week ago.

There have also been reports of sailors attempting to go overboard. At least one sailor went overboard on August 3 and was rescued after nearly an hour in the water, and another was reportedly stopped by a fellow crew member. CENTCOM, however, dismissed claims that soldiers had tried to jump off the ship, saying in a social media post that the Lincoln has "maintained among the highest crew reenlistment rates (84.4%) of all aircraft carriers in the US Navy" and that the crew "remain resilient and resolved after more than 260 days at sea, 10,000 aircraft flights, and 1.5 million pounds of ordnance expended." CENTCOM condemned what it called "rampant misreporting" as a disservice to those serving aboard the Lincoln.

A TikTok video published by a Navy pilot on Sunday allegedly showed poor bathroom conditions on the carrier, which the sailor described as "atrocious." The Navy has not identified an increase in reported suicidal thoughts or attempts among the crew, but lawmakers and families have raised concerns about mental health.

Official responses and pushback

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed on August 13 that conditions on the Lincoln were being "completely misrepresented" in news reports. President Donald Trump said on August 14 that the deployment was "not nearly long enough."

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said in a statement that the Lincoln's crew had "crushed their deployment and will return home soon as part of a planned rotation." Admiral Brad Cooper of US Central Command visited the ship and said it currently has among the lowest number of mental health cases of the Navy's 11 active aircraft carriers, while acknowledging that doesn't mean all is perfect. He also called the deployment "the most operationally intense and consequential of the modern era."

A Navy official said in a statement that current reports from the ship confirm continuous access to clean water, functional air conditioning, and healthy meal options.

At a tense meeting in San Diego attended by around 200 relatives, families confronted Cao and senior commanders over the deployment and the lack of clarity about when the crew would return. A White House spokesperson re-released a statement saying that Trump "cares about our troops more than anyone, and he is ensuring our brave servicemembers have all the resources they need to be successful."

Retired Navy Captain Carl Otis Schuster said more attention should be paid to the "human element" of deployments and that the Lincoln's crew exhibited "really strong resilience." Lory Manning, a retired Navy officer, said sailors typically leave for deployments with a sense of when they will return, and "every time that is changed, it's demoralizing."

Looking ahead

The Lincoln's return to San Diego is expected within a few weeks, according to reports from Thursday evening. The Pentagon is also considering reducing its Middle East presence in the long term after the war with Iran, according to The Washington Post.