Families of sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln are going public with their fury over the conditions their relatives are enduring in the ninth month of a deployment that was supposed to last seven months, with no homecoming date in sight.

The USS Abraham Lincoln left San Diego in November 2025. When Trump launched his air campaign against Iran in February, he was promising his fellow Americans it would last a few weeks.

Still Battle Ready

Five months later, the ship is still in the fight, its 5,000-plus sailors and Marines having set foot off the vessel for just two days since leaving California.

A brief stop in Guam in December was followed by 208 consecutive days at sea before the Lincoln reached Oman on July 7 2026.

The Long March

It was the longest ‘route march’ odyssey without a port call for any U.S. carrier in the modern era.

Relatives told MS NOW they fear the exhaustion on board will get someone killed.

Bonnie York, whose stepson is aboard and who voted for Trump, said she had been told a doctor or therapist on the ship warned the crew needed to reach port before people started losing their minds.

‘You’ve essentially stranded them out there,’ she said.

Families described toilets out of service, laundry rooms closed for weeks, and long stretches without hot water.

Abandoning Ship

Sailors on the US aircraft carrier now operating near Iran attempted to jump overboard amid exhaustion and low morale caused by extended operations, several news outlets have reported, citing crew members’ families.

Annabelle Loma told Military Times on Tuesday that the ship’s ombudsman had informed her that her husband had tried to jump off the carrier. 

‘He thinks he’ll get a dishonourable discharge, and just because he was burnt out,’ she said.

Suicidal

Maria Rodriguez, the wife of another sailor, said her husband had intervened in a separate incident, preventing a shipmate from going overboard.

According to Stars and Stripes, active-duty sailors and family members described a bleak atmosphere aboard the ship, detailing reports of suicidal thoughts and at least one case in which a crew member was prevented from jumping overboard.

Morale plummeting

‘We’ve just been turning and burning the whole time we’ve deployed,’ a sailor told the publication, noting that morale, which was high at the beginning of the deployment, had declined.

MS NOW cited families as saying last week that the crew had struggled with food shortages and that the ship’s store often lacked basic supplies such as toothpaste, soap, and deodorant.

‘We’ve just been turning and burning the whole time we’ve deployed,’ a sailor told the publication, noting that morale, which was high at the beginning of the deployment, had declined. Let readers know what you think

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