Families of US sailors denounce Trump and Hegseth for ‘dismissing their experiences and calling them liars’
www.theguardian.com
One US sailor’s mother asks: ‘My son signed up to serve his country. But why isn’t his country serving him?’

They spoke of insufficient nourishment that has led to close relatives losing 20-30lbs in weight since they were sent to the Middle East five months ago, leaving one sailor “emaciated”, according to his mother.

They spoke also of low-quality drinking water and scarce mental health counseling and support despite the intense burden of being at sea for months on end without making land.

The USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier with more than 5,000 sailors and marines onboard, has been at sea for nearly nine months, having begun its deployment in November. There have been reports of multiple suicide attempts including jumping overboard.

When Trump was asked on Friday whether naval families were worried about conditions on board, he replied: “No, they’re not.” He said that the Lincoln’s deployment, now in its ninth month, was “not nearly long enough”.

  • Optional@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 hours ago

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fox-news-joey-jones-uss-lincoln_n_6a811d8ae4b0b3bc96f6cc45

    Fox News anchor Joey Jones unloaded on sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln for complaining about the ever-deteriorating conditions aboard the aircraft carrier deployed to the Middle East since late last year.

    Jones on “The Big Weekend Show” Saturday night was specifically responding to a recent CNN segment featuring an unnamed service member aboard the Lincoln that aired on Thursday.

    “I would say morale’s pretty low, and not just in the division, like in the ship entirely,” the service member told CNN. “We’re running pretty low on rations, I mean at some points in the day it would just be about noodles and tuna mixed in together, and that was it … sometimes you get a corndog, sometimes you get a hot dog.”

    Jones let out an audible sigh as the segment ended before ranting for nearly three minutes, comparing the sailor’s experiences to his deployment with the Marines to Iraq and Afghanistan.

    “That little … you know what I ate in Afghanistan for six months using a little burner? I ate Ramen noodles … that’s what I ate, and I was happy to have it, because the alternative was an MRE or something cooked by the Afghan guy who was too stupid to be given a gun and they let him be the cook,” Jones said.

    Jones went on to ask the soldiers, “How weak are you?” before continuing his rant.

    “On TV, complaining about tuna and noodles?” Jones said. “I’m sorry, you volunteered to serve your country. You can come back, get out of the military, and do like all of these Democrat veterans and complain about it and make commercials and be a sellout if you want to.”

    Jones served the Marine Corps for eight years, eventually reaching the rank of staff sergeant, and was wounded in 2010 when an improvised explosive device detonated while he was deployed to Afghanistan. He suffered major injuries that led to him having both legs amputated.

    Joey’s got a big angry.