(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
You are hearing live dockside music that greeted the sailors and Marines of the USS Abraham Lincoln as they arrived home in San Diego today. The aircraft carrier left San Diego last November and spent a record-breaking number of uninterrupted days at sea, including serving in combat in the Iran war. Now, during this deployment, the roughly 5,000 service members on the carrier and its surrounding ships confronted food supply issues, disrupted mail, limited phone calls and, because of the mounting challenges, there was a severe erosion of morale. Also, the acting secretary of the Navy told Congress that there were eight suicide attempts during this deployment.
Well, one of the people waiting in San Diego to greet the returning service members today was Democratic Representative Sara Jacobs. She represents part of San Diego and joins us now. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
SARA JACOBS: Thank you. Great to be here.
CHANG: Great to have you. OK, well, let me just start with what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said about this. He says that the conditions on the USS Lincoln have been misrepresented. But you have been aboard the ship yourself. You have met with sailors. What have you seen and heard about what these service members have gone through?
JACOBS: Yeah, I embarked on the ship last week and met with sailors and marines directly who told me about their own experiences without being able to get the mental health care they needed, not being able to get as much food as they needed, not having access to hot water and some days being able to take a shower. And so I've heard firsthand about these conditions from the folks aboard the ship. And I actually think it's incredibly disrespectful to our service members to negate what they went through, the sacrifices that they made in order to serve our country.
CHANG: Was there any particular story from a sailor that you found especially disturbing?
JACOBS: One sailor I talked to said that she tried to go get mental healthcare, and she had to return six times...
CHANG: Wow.
JACOBS: ...Over the course of multiple months before she was able to see a provider.
CHANG: Well, one thing that can get lost when we talk about long deployments like this is how they affect family members back home, right? What have you been hearing from families about what this very long time at sea has done to them?
JACOBS: Yeah, the families are the ones who, you know, are really struggling the most. They were not told when their service members were going to come home. It was supposed to be a standard deployment, and it just kept getting extended. And that uncertainty was really, really difficult for them. You know, I met a number of families out here with babies who were meeting their parent for the first time because they have been deployed during basically this child's entire life and their birth and missed all of that. And so it's been really hard on the families. I've talked to some kids who have really been struggling with not knowing when their parent is going to come home and just feeling a lot of anxiety because, you know, they're seeing their parent in harm's way and not knowing if they're going to be okay.
CHANG: Of course. Well, now that these service members are back home, do you have a sense of what they need most right now in terms of support?
JACOBS: Yeah, we are making sure that, in addition to giving them ample time with their family and ample time off, that they still have, you know, very clear points of access for mental healthcare and that we are actually surging support so that they can get, you know, the support they need, because often after these long deployments, the readjustment period coming home can also be difficult. And we know these next couple of weeks are going to be a critical time period to making sure that they still have those mental healthcare supports.
CHANG: Yeah. Those readjustment periods are difficult in any length of deployment, but especially so in such a long deployment. Let me ask you, as we mentioned, you know, there were at least eight suicide attempts. Do we know what kind of care those individuals are receiving now?
JACOBS: I have not received a briefing on the specific care of those individuals. I will say that eight were my understanding across the entire carrier strike group, which means the aircraft carrier and the additional ships that were with it. Some of those ships are still deployed in the Middle East. And so, while the Abraham Lincoln, the aircraft carrier, is home and I'm grateful that, you know, over 5,000 service members on that ship are home, there are still lots of ships, some of whom have served just as long deployments, who are still out in the Middle East. And, obviously, new aircraft carriers like the Teddy Roosevelt heading that way...
CHANG: Yeah.
JACOBS: ...And more people who are going, you know - hopefully we'll have learned the lesson so they won't have to go through all of the hardship that these sailors have gone through.
CHANG: Well, let's talk about accountability here. Have you gotten any answers as to why the ship was deployed for such an extraordinarily long time?
JACOBS: I have gotten some answers, but truthfully, they have not been sufficient.
CHANG: What kinds of answers? Like, as you and other lawmakers were pushing for months for the return of the USS Lincoln, what kinds of reasons did the administration give you as to why that wasn't feasible?
JACOBS: Yeah, the fact of the matter is, the root of all of this is that President Trump started the war in Iran without doing any of the adequate planning or logistics needed to make sure that we would have the force that we need and to make sure that the service members fighting that war would have what they need. And that is what has caused all of this. There was no planning done for making sure that these ships were going to get the logistic sustainment that they needed during these combat operations. And that, to me, is the most shameful part.
CHANG: Do you think this very long deployment will have any effect on retention going forward? Like, have any sailors told you that they don't plan to reenlist after what they went through?
JACOBS: Yeah, absolutely. I talked to a number of sailors and marines aboard the ship who told me that this extended deployment and the conditions of the deployment were the reason they decided not to reenlist into the military. So I think it will have real readiness and recruitment impacts, not to mention the fact that the ship is now - the aircraft carrier is now going to be going into maintenance. It will be an extended maintenance period because of the extended deployment. And we - our understanding is that both the George Washington and the Teddy Roosevelt that are in the Middle East or on route to will also be having extended deployments because of President Trump's reckless war in Iran. And so this is going to have long lasting readiness impacts on our military.
CHANG: Well, in the 45 seconds or so that we have left, you have called for a House Armed Services Committee field hearing in San Diego to hear directly from service members. But realistically, what do you hope to achieve through a hearing, given the tone this administration is taking about their accountability in all of this?
JACOBS: My hope is that we learn the lessons from this deployment and make sure that it doesn't happen to any other sailors or Marines and that we hold to account the people who sent our service member into harm's way without doing the adequate planning to make sure that they would be taken care of.
CHANG: That is Democratic Congresswoman Sara Jacobs of California. Thank you very much for your time.
JACOBS: Thank you.
CHANG: And if you or someone you know is in crisis, you can call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHYGIRL SONG, "HEAVEN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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