{"id":49367,"date":"2026-08-16T22:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T17:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=49367"},"modified":"2026-08-16T22:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T17:29:11","slug":"gop-rep-don-bacon-says-congress-should-have-oversight-amid-concerns-about-uss-lincoln-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=49367","title":{"rendered":"GOP Rep. Don Bacon says Congress &#8220;should have oversight&#8221; amid concerns about USS Lincoln conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><em>Washington \u2014 <\/em>GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said on Sunday that Congress should conduct oversight following concerns about conditions aboard the <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/aircraft-carrier-uss-george-washington-uss-lincoln-iran-middle-east\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">USS Abraham Lincoln,<\/a><\/span> which is being replaced after a nearly nine-month deployment, while calling for testimony from top Navy officials.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We should have oversight,&#8221; Bacon said on &#8220;Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The USS George Washington aircraft carrier is headed to the Middle East to replace the Lincoln, a U.S. official told CBS News on Friday, after some families have voiced concerns in recent weeks about conditions on the ship \u2014 like supply shortages and mental health issues. Media <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2026\/08\/11\/multiple-uss-abraham-lincoln-sailors-have-tried-to-go-overboard-amid-extended-deployment-families-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reports<\/a> have quoted some family members who say they&#8217;ve heard of multiple sailors who have thought about jumping overboard amid the extended deployment.<\/p>\n<p>Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SECNAV\/status\/2088349887427674388?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> in a post on X on Friday that the Lincoln &#8220;will return home soon as part of a planned rotation.&#8221; Cao added that a &#8220;small number of mental health cases were treated with no loss of life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/uss-abraham-lincoln-democratic-senators-inquiry-demand\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth<\/a><\/span> on Thursday, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal called for the Navy to account for conditions aboard the carrier, which he said &#8220;has been deployed more than 250 days&#8221; without coming ashore &#8220;in over 200 days, setting a record for consecutive days at sea.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bacon, a retired Air Force Brigadier General who&#8217;s set to leave Congress early next year, said the secretary of the Navy or its service chief should come before lawmakers and &#8220;explain to us the truth on that.&#8221; But he noted that during his time in the Air Force, he experienced &#8220;some of these incidences.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Nebraska Republican said in 1996, when the U.S. wasn&#8217;t at war, he served on an aircraft carrier, enforcing the southern no-fly zone over Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We had a couple members jump overboard and commit suicide while I was on that deployment,&#8221; Bacon said. &#8220;So these incidences, they&#8217;re terrible, they&#8217;re sad, but it has happened previously and unfortunately, likely in the future as well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The comments came after President Trump on Friday downplayed the toll on American sailors, while refuting concerns expressed by family members about the deployment&#8217;s length.<\/p>\n<p>Asked whether the deployment has gone on too long, Mr. Trump told reporters, &#8220;No. Not nearly long enough.&#8221;<\/p>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n<\/section>\n<p>  <!-- data-recirc-source=\"queryly\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation  \">\n        <\/aside>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n      <!-- tags --><br \/>\n    <\/section>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington \u2014 GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said on Sunday that Congress should conduct oversight following concerns about conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, which is being replaced after a nearly nine-month deployment, while calling for testimony from top Navy officials. &#8220;We should have oversight,&#8221; Bacon said on &#8220;Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.&#8221;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/08\/16\/a831350e-80b0-4e05-958c-6e4541ded69b\/thumbnail\/1200x630\/4776c2ba70e6d0489b2945fd71213389\/1786896986213.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}