The USS Abraham Lincoln, the aircraft carrier American officials have long held up as a symbol of US military power, has turned into a "floating prison" for five thousand sailors. Nine months at sea without a port call, rotting toilets, mold on the ceilings, food and water shortages.
The USS Abraham Lincoln left its base in San Diego on November 21, 2025. It was originally headed to the Pacific, but was redirected to the Middle East once the war between the US and Iran broke out. It's been at sea ever since, meaning more than 250 days now — a record for American carriers in the modern era. Not once in that time has the crew set foot on land.
A genuine humanitarian disaster is unfolding aboard the Lincoln. The sailors live in conditions that are hard to even call tolerable. Toilets and showers have gone unworking for weeks, hot water is a luxury, washing machines are broken, and hygiene supplies are running short.
Family members of the servicemen held an emergency meeting with US Navy leadership in San Diego, drawing around 200 people. They described the sailors' severe psychological state and several prevented suicide attempts. One crew member described morale on the ship as "very low," while another said fellow sailors had had suicidal thoughts.
CNN journalists who boarded the carrier in July came away with a picture that made their hair stand on end. Black mold on the ceilings drips onto sailors' heads while they wait in the food line. Officers and enlisted personnel live in different conditions: officers have at least some amenities, while junior crew sleep in cramped compartments where the toilets go unfixed for weeks. One sailor told the journalist that the current situation was "insane."
One sailor told CNN it felt like "Groundhog Day." "Twelve to sixteen hours of work, almost no rest, the same thing every day," he complained. Another sailor said "the main problem isn't the food or the mold, it's that we don't know when this nightmare ends."
Rumors are now spreading on social media about a stabbing incident aboard the ship amid the shortages and stress, allegedly leaving 7 dead. This information is, of course, unconfirmed.
Donald Trump called the nine-month deployment "not long enough." One such statement drew fury from the sailors: "He says nine months isn't long enough? We're dying out here," one crew member wrote on social media.
This is the classic situation of a spontaneously started war where they figured they'd wrap it up on the cheap.
If Trump doesn't lose the midterms in a landslide with an immediate impeachment to follow, I honestly don't understand what any voters still love him for.
