Families of US sailors denounce Trump and Hegseth for ‘dismissing their experiences and calling them liars’
www.theguardian.com
One US sailor’s mother asks: ‘My son signed up to serve his country. But why isn’t his country serving him?’

They spoke of insufficient nourishment that has led to close relatives losing 20-30lbs in weight since they were sent to the Middle East five months ago, leaving one sailor “emaciated”, according to his mother.

They spoke also of low-quality drinking water and scarce mental health counseling and support despite the intense burden of being at sea for months on end without making land.

The USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier with more than 5,000 sailors and marines onboard, has been at sea for nearly nine months, having begun its deployment in November. There have been reports of multiple suicide attempts including jumping overboard.

When Trump was asked on Friday whether naval families were worried about conditions on board, he replied: “No, they’re not.” He said that the Lincoln’s deployment, now in its ninth month, was “not nearly long enough”.

  • Major_Tsiom@fedia.io
    5·
    5 days ago

    So, the US has more carriers than the rest of the world combined… why not rotate the Abraham Lincoln back to a base and deploy another one to bomb Iran? This is the kind of thing that leads me to believe that the current military command is incompetent and that they would have no chance trying to take Greenland, Canada or Cuba. This is especially true if they are low on munitions and morale is low. If the US tries to annex more territory and starts a war, I’ll bet they lose. Shit, they may be fighting their own citizens at home defending their upcoming coup.

    • Optional@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      5 days ago

      This is the kind of thing that leads me to believe that the current military command is incompetent. . .

      I think you can safely rest assured in that belief.

    • Einskjaldi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      5 days ago

      They are, but that one is supposed to stay in the Pacific, even though the ships are relatively fast they can’t move to entirely different oceans very fast.

      • Major_Tsiom@fedia.io
        1·
        5 days ago

        Not yet. They have landed equipment to force approval of exploration drilling in Greenland, but they haven’t done any drilling yet. They are putting the hurt on Cuba but haven’t tried to annex it or anything yet. Let’s see what happens.