The USS Abraham Lincoln is now returning to San Diego, California, after a nine-month deployment, a US official told CBS News. The journey back could take several weeks.
The USS George Washington warship is expected to relieve the aircraft carrier after it arrived in the Middle East on Wednesday, August 19.
Record deployment and deteriorating conditions
The Lincoln has 5,000 sailors and Marines on board. The warship has been at sea since November 2025 and has spent a record 250 days consecutively without making land.
Military families have raised the alarm about deteriorating living conditions and mental health on board amid the record deployment. US President Donald Trump has downplayed fears over conditions on the carrier amid claims sailors tried to jump overboard during their extended deployment. His comments come after two American military news outlets reported suicide attempts and a shortages of basic supplies, safety concerns and mental health issues on the vessel.
Families speak out
The mother of a sailor aboard the Lincoln told NBC News that her son was expecting to be deployed for six months. When she finally heard from him, about a month after the Feb. 28 strikes, she said, he mentioned he was hungry and losing weight. "He was just eating what he could eat," she said.
The Guardian reported that the wife of a sailor onboard the Lincoln said she has been getting brief glimpses over the past few months of what life is like on the aircraft carrier and that as the deployment continued, she has noticed a change in her husband's messages. "There's less hope in the way he talks and less positive things that he has to say," she said, adding that he is "exhausted".
Official response
The woman said that her husband rarely complained. She mentioned sparce meals, one of which she described as "couple of pieces of bacon and three or four chicken wings". "To put it plainly, I just don’t think they're getting enough calories."
Over the weekend, Admiral Brad Cooper of US Central Command visited the ship. A statement released said the vessel "currently has among the lowest number of cases related to mental health" of the navy's 11 active aircraft carriers, but acknowledged "that doesn't mean all is perfect".
