US Warship Pulled From Pacific to Relieve USS Abraham Lincoln Amid Navy Deployment Strain

A U.S. Navy warship has been pulled away from its Pacific assignment to head for the Middle East, where it will take pressure off the USS Abraham Lincoln after sailors reported increasingly punishing conditions aboard the overextended aircraft carrier.

The USS George Washington has left the Pacific and is expected to replace the nuclear-powered carrier, whose crew has spent nearly nine months deployed in support of U.S. military operations and regional security efforts tied to the continuing conflict in the Middle East, the Associated Press reported.

The USS Abraham Lincoln had been scheduled to return home in May, but its deployment was extended as the carrier remained engaged in operations connected to Iran.

Recent reports have described dire conditions on board, with morale said to be eroding so sharply that some service members have struggled with suicidal thoughts.

President Donald Trump drew backlash after questioning those accounts, and on Saturday, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) commander Adm. Brad Cooper visited the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Cooper, who is overseeing the U.S. military posture in the Iran conflict, stopped aboard the carrier during a 10-day regional trip that also included Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to a new report from The Hill.

He praised the sailors as a “strong team of high-achieving Americans,” saying they were standing with “immense, justified pride” in what they had delivered during the demanding mission.

“History will record this deployment as one of the most operationally intense and consequential of the modern era,” Cooper said in a statement.

CENTCOM shared that the crew members have completed ‘thousands of combat flights in support of Operation Epic Fury, regional security missions and the ongoing U.S. naval blockade against Iran.’ 

The sailors have been docked there for more than 260 days since November 2025 after acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said the mission ‘demanded it.’ 

Cooper previously visited the ship in February along with US Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

At the time, CENTCOM said the ship was in the region ‘to support maritime security and stability.’ 

On Friday, Cao announced that the USS Abraham will finally be returning home as part of a planned rotation with the USS George Washington. 

He claimed that reports of what the sailors are dealing with on board are an attempt to try and paint ‘our warriors as victims.’ 

Trump has also downplayed reported concerns for the sailors, and insisted that the new ship was on its way to replace it. 

During a chat with reporters on Friday, the president said the lengthy deployment was ‘not nearly long enough.’  

‘That ship is moving right now, or very shortly, and it’s being replaced with another very similar ship,’ Trump said before flying to New York for an event about the falling violent crime rate in the US. 

When asked if family members of those onboard were worried about the reported conditions, Trump replied: ‘No, they’re not.’ 

After making that statement, Trump was slammed by the wife of a sailor who is aboard the USS Lincoln, which has been described as a ‘floating metal prison’ with ‘appalling conditions.’ 

The unidentified woman said that her husband described the experience aboard the aircraft carrier stationed in the Middle East as ‘the worst deployment he’s ever been on.’

‘This is not his first deployment. This is not his first time being out there, and he is saying that it is the worst deployment that he’s ever been on. And he also says that his shipmates say the same,’ she told CNN‘s Jake Tapper on Friday. 

Since the beginning of the conflict, reports have surfaced of food shortages and rationing aboard the Lincoln, accompanied by photographs of sailors’ meals.

‘It’s not just the quality; it’s the quantity,’ the sailor’s wife told the outlet. ‘It’s the rationing. The portions are awful, so it’s really not good.’ 

Remaining anonymous out of fear of retaliation against her husband, the woman added that her spouse, who she said is typically unaffected by work stressors, ‘feels himself being angrier and more frustrated.’ 

‘You’re stuck in a floating metal prison, essentially, in the middle of the water, eating prison-like food with the same people in the same bunk beds in the same small quarters for 200 days, 250 days, you start to go a little insane working 12 hours, getting four or five hours of sleep,’ she continued.

Outraged at Trump’s response to reports of the conditions, she slammed the president, saying: ‘I don’t think the man thinks before he talks.’ 

‘Have some sympathy, some empathy. Take some accountability for what’s going on with your military, your ships, in your war,’ she pleaded.

‘It’s infuriating… essentially saying that families are lying and service members are lying.’

On August 3, a sailor assigned to the carrier’s air wing went into rough seas wearing a life vest in what the Navy deemed a mental health episode, CNN reported.  

He was pulled from the water by a search and rescue helicopter within the hour.

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal and other lawmakers are demanding answers from Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth.   

But Hegseth has also refuted claims of the bad conditions onboard the ship and said they were ‘completely misrepresented.’

‘Listen, we make sure that every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment,’ Hegseth told Newsmax on Thursday.