Navy Families Confront Top Officials Over Trump's War

In San Diego last Thursday, 200 family members of sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln gathered at the Island Club on Naval Air Station North Island for an in-person meeting with the acting secretary of the Navy, Hung Cao, and other top naval commanders. The Abraham Lincoln had been deployed for roughly 262 days at that point—approaching a post-Vietnam record set by the USS Gerald Ford, which was deployed for 326 days before returning. The meeting was combative. Family members described sailors suffering from serious mental health issues, unable to get basic nutrition, living with moldy showers, broken plumbing, and toilets that had stopped working for extended periods. One parent said her daughter believed she would never come home and would die on the ship. Another spouse, whose baby was born during the deployment, said her husband had gotten no time with the child and that many friends on the boat had yet to meet their children at all. The room erupted in applause when one woman questioned the mission itself, saying she found it difficult to be proud of her sailor when she believed the military was killing innocent civilians—and that her husband, aboard the Lincoln, had expressed guilt about what he was doing.

A Virtual Town Hall and a Stunt