Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao praised the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier as scrutiny mounted from lawmakers over conditions during the warship’s extended deployment, emphasizing that no sailors or Marines died despite what he described as a “small number” of mental health crises aboard.
“The USS Abraham Lincoln crushed their deployment and will return home soon as part of a planned rotation. Details will come but let me be clear: the safety and security of our Sailors and Marines always comes first,” Cao wrote in a post on X. “Mission accomplishment. Troop Welfare. This is how we lead.”
Cao said “a small number of mental health cases were treated with no loss of life,” adding that the carrier’s “meal plans were adjusted when fresh resupply was unavailable, without a single meal being missed.”
His remarks came after reports describing difficult conditions for the roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines serving on the USS Abraham Lincoln. Navy Times reported last week that at least two sailors had to be stopped from jumping overboard, a report that drew pushback from the Pentagon.
The aircraft carrier left San Diego on Nov. 21, 2025, for a deployment that has stretched beyond the Navy’s typical six-month rotation.
President Trump downplayed the concerns Friday, telling reporters, “That ship is moving right now, or very shortly, and it’s being replaced with another very similar ship.” When asked whether the carrier had been away from home too long as the US faces tensions with Iran, Trump replied: “No, not nearly long enough.”
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Cao defended keeping the USS Abraham Lincoln deployed longer than usual, saying “the mission demanded” the extension.
“Deployments are hard. Combat operations make them harder. War is hell and normal routines are disrupted,” Cao, who retired from the Navy as a captain in 2021, wrote Friday.
He accused the media of “trying to paint our warriors as victims,” following reports of complaints by family of crew members and claimed it “takes away the focus on the enemy and the threat it poses against our nation, people, and way of life.”
The he rattled off some stats about the ship’s deployment, as the USS George Washington makes its way to the region — 266 days deployed, 200 in a combat zone, launching 10,000 sorties and dropping 1.5 million pounds of ordnance during the war with Iran that began in February.
“There is no question our young men and women have been pushed to their limits—but they have never broken,” he wrote.
Lawmakers have questioned whether the Navy can keep carriers deployed for such long stretches without taking a toll on sailors and fleet readiness.
“The Lincoln’s extended deployment raises broader questions about the Navy’s ability to sustainably generate carrier forces while preserving servicemember well-being, maintenance schedules, fleet readiness and the capacity to respond to future contingencies,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote Cao and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week.
