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CNN anchor Pamela Brown — who secured rare access onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in July — penned a gripping account of the conditions and morale onboard the aircraft carrier.
In a comprehensive piece for CNN.com, Brown talked about her experience and reported on texts she’s gotten from the crew of the Lincoln. The aircraft carrier — which has been deployed for nearly nine months — has become a major topic of conversation amid stories about dire conditions and even reports that several sailors have tried to jump overboard.
Brown says the reality of what’s happening on the USS Abraham Lincoln is not as simple as what’s being talked about in the media.
“I’m writing this because a lot of the recent coverage of the Lincoln has centered on poor conditions and mental health struggles — and those stories are real and they matter,” Brown wrote. “I didn’t get to see every nook and cranny of the ship, or talk to all of the roughly 5,000 crew members, though the Navy allowed us to roam freely for the most part with an escort and talk to whomever we wanted. We also pushed to see as much as we could in the short amount of time that we had.
“Three days onboard the Lincoln, and dozens of conversations with sailors — both officers and enlisted — showed me something messier than a single narrative: genuine hardship alongside genuine resilience, sometimes in the same person, sometimes in the same sentence.”
President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have come under criticism for their recent comments about the aircraft carrier.
“Have the deployments gone on too long?” A reporter asked Trump on Friday.
“No, no, no,” Trump replied. “Not nearly long enough.”
And Hegseth claimed reports about the Lincoln have “completely misrepresented” the conditions and morale.
Brown wrote, “That sentiment did not go over well with many of the sailors I’m in touch with, and it’s important to understand the reality is far more complicated than a soundbite.”
As far as the conditions go, a sailor messaged Brown to say, “Food has slightly increased in edibility, if I was asked a few months ago I would say a lot of people were losing weight due to the food.”
“That’s not a five-star review,” Brown wrote. “It’s also not the crisis some coverage has implied.”
Another sailor told Brown, “we’ve had black mold around the ship for awhile,” though Brown did not observe any during her visit.
CNN photojournalist John Torigoe described the conditions by saying, “I showered with hot water on demand — it was great with no restrictions on time usage. Yes, I saw mold and old pipes. Was it expected? Absolutely, with the amount of time at sea. I was amazed at how professional these sailors were.”
And as to the overall morale, Brown wrote that the issue hitting the largely 20-something crew the hardest is the lack of a clear end date.
“The main reason this deployment is so worse is because we were not supposed to come out here and fight a war,” A sailor said in a message to Brown. The sailor added, “At first when we learned that we would be doing combat operations it was intended to be a 2 week thing. But unfortunately that became a 7 month thing… They told us it was to help Iranian protesters, then they told us we are out here to denuclearize Iran, now it’s to support a blockade. The purpose of even doing this is inconsistent …This is a big let down with consistent extensions that affects our loved ones who have their lives on hold until we return.”
Added together, Brown’s own experience onboard the Lincoln and her correspondence with those on board lead her to conclude that the story is much more gray than it is black and white.
“We live in a moment in which stories flatten fast — either the ship is a disaster or the coverage is overblown. Neither is accurate,” Brown wrote. “Conditions were bad, then better. Morale is low for some, fine for others, and driven less by mold than by not knowing for so long when they’re coming home.”
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