After 244 consecutive days at sea without a port call, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln may finally see the end of its nine-month deployment. Navy officials haven’t said what the end date is, but the USS George Washington Carrier Battle Group was spotted heading west through the Strait of Malacca yesterday on its way to the Indian Ocean, reported USNI News. The Japan-based battle group is conducting their first patrol of 2026 after departing Yokosuka in May.
That news came as self-styled “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth and the Trump Administration came under pressure from Congressional Democrats over the long deployments, and the stress they have placed on the sailors and their families. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote a letter to Hegseth and Hung Cao, the acting secretary of the Navy, to express “serious concerns” about the Lincoln’s extended deployment amid reports of supply shortages, water contamination and deteriorating mental health on the aircraft carrier.
“There have been widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns, and disruptions in the mail system, which have caused many care packages en route to the ship to be lost in transit for months. These reports warrant immediate attention, but they also raise a broader question: whether the Navy can sustain the operational tempo now being demanded of its carrier force, particularly as this Administration repeatedly commits U.S. forces to conflicts of its own choosing and increasingly relies on aircraft carriers to sustain those operations,” Blumenthal wrote.
