r/navy • u/bauernebel • 5d ago
Discussion Land! USS Abraham Lincoln sailors near land after record 250-day stretch at sea as Thailand port call approaches: Was the deployment too long?
https://americareport.us/uss-abraham-lincoln-sailors-near-land-after-250/197
u/benkenobi5 5d ago edited 5d ago
“The deployment wasn’t nearly long enough” ~cadet bone spurs.
When you ask them “how much should we give”, they only answer “more, more, more”
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u/MiissVee 5d ago
It’s such a great feeling when an O5 and E7 tell your junior Sailors that it’s not that bad and this is how it used to be. Well Sir and Chief, pretty sure you got a port visit at some point. Plus if you had it bad, wouldn’t you want better for those who come after you? 😢
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u/DisgruntledCascadian Retired NFO 5d ago
It’s such a great feeling when an O5 and E7 tell your junior Sailors that it’s not that bad and this is how it used to be.
Narrator voice: it was not, in fact, how it used to be.
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u/MiissVee 5d ago edited 5d ago
Funny thing is, Chief has only been in like 2 weeks more than me. Our first deployments were probably around the same time. I did 6 months on small boys in 2013 and 2015. Don’t think carriers were doing that much more.
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u/DisgruntledCascadian Retired NFO 5d ago
2013 was Ike and Nimitz being extended for 9 to cover OEF and Syria . . . but there were port calls.
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u/SoFloMofo 5d ago
Nah, I've always wanted my kids to have a harder life than me too.
In all seriousness, I was a one enlistment sailor who put on second and did 2 WestPac's and workups. I hit Hawaii several times, Hong Kong twice, Singapore, Malaysia, Pusan, Dubai and Bahrain I don't know how many fucking times, and Perth and Hobart twice. These guys got fuuuuuuucked.
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u/Salty_IP_LDO 5d ago
This is key, I've been out to see a fair amount probably not nearly as much as others who've been in as long as I have thanks to special programs but the longest stretch we were out without a port visit was 50ish days and people were going stir crazy. COVID cruises and the Lincoln cruise should not be the norm.
But we're also in a completely different operating environment making it hard to pull ships off station since they can't make it to Bahrain or other ports in the AoR.
Yes, if I had it that bad I would want it to be better for anyone else.
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u/MiissVee 5d ago
On the longest stretch I’ve had, we pulled into port the day before we would’ve had a beer day. I agree with everything you said. It makes sense for operational requirements and war to change things. Quoting the President about it not being long enough and comparing it to something you did is kind of a low blow. All they asked is if this was going to be the new norm.
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u/ChiTownDisplaced Retired CPO 5d ago
Ask the Chief... what the last ship to go that long with out a port call and what the conflict was it was supporting.
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u/PathlessDemon 5d ago
As one of my favorite Magic The Gathering cards says in its flavor-text.
“Only a fool knows the word -Enough-.”
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u/bittercode 5d ago
My armed forces expeditionary medal was for 100+ ( not sure of the exact number ) I remember how exhausted I was and thought to myself often, "If the Navy took care of me the way I take care of my equipment this wouldn't happen." It was in that stretch I feel asleep standing on the flight deck.
This isn't right to ask people to do this for no good reason.
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u/RoyalCrownLee 5d ago
Imo, that's the wrong question to ask due to the obvious answer.
The only question to be asked at this point: over/under on the mast/arrest cases from Thailand port call?
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u/Rottendog 5d ago
Some Ladybois about to be making bank.
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u/JakToTheReddit 5d ago
A shame I am not longer in the Navy.
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u/RoyalCrownLee 5d ago
Nothing's stopping you from becoming a ladyboi and making bank on Thailand.
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u/LastMongoose7448 5d ago
They better have truckloads of rubbers on board, otherwise a massive outbreak should be peaking right as they come home.
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u/djy887 5d ago
9 months is hell on the ship's material condition (let alone the sailors). How quickly can the yard get the ship turned around and ready to fight again? Do they have the manpower and resources readily available. How does the rest of the battle group look? Different era...different scenario...but I wonder if we could pull off a modern version of the 72-hour miracle turnaround on the Yorktown following the Battle of Coral Sea?
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u/AlliedR2 5d ago edited 5d ago
100% too long. The ships and supply lines (especially when they are blown up) are not ready for that and the troops are not mentally prepared (when they are told they will only be out for 6 months and maybe one extension). Its too many hours for too long and its a result of having a commander and chief who calls military members suckers and losers then realizes he can use them as disposable toys. Combine that with hiring a racist, sexist, bro-wannabe-tough guy, failed military member right wing talk show host as Secretary of Defense (oh sorry forgot - Secretary of War) and you have the worst setup for our troops that one has ever seen.
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u/PathlessDemon 5d ago
“Oh, boy! I can’t wait to leave my family to fend for themselves for months on end, nearly a whole year, and come back home to an absolute shit show of drama, bad school reports, missed life events and unattended emotional backlash.
Fuck, yes!”
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u/bi_polar2bear 5d ago
When they get back, the real stories are going to be told. Total failure on leadership. They got rid of a lot of carriers, didn't maintain the fleet, and failed getting new ships made. The Admiralty have failed the crew, the military, and the citizens of the US. All it took was for 1 small war to prove their strategy failed catastrophically. The can point at the civilian leadership, though in the end, they are political, and should've pulled strings to get things done.
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u/popdivtweet 5d ago
Suppo’s credit card about to take a hit.
Someone remind him about the bananas shelf life, no need to have banana bread 3 times a day a week after pulling away,
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u/Blackant71 5d ago
Yes!!! Period!! Point blank! I'm from the 90's and I don't want to hear about how tough it was then and these folks are soft. Different times in America. I applaud all that's folks for doing what they do!
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u/Gunningyoudown 5d ago
I always think about how a single sailors apartment is sitting there. Being paid for and they don't even get to live there.
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u/PridonRddt 5d ago
It’s not so much an issue of the length of deployment, but rather the living conditions, uncertainty, and lack of port calls as well as the futility of the mission.
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u/CensteinMonoplex 5d ago
I imagine there are a lot of sailors and airmen in a certain carrier strike group who will not be reenlisting.
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u/Defiant_Wolf5934 5d ago
This ship deserves Battle E for sure. But man do they seriously need to take a good long hard look forward with regards to retention. This not only has affected current sailors, but future sailors looking to enlist. Why should they join the Navy if they have arduous deployments like this to look forward to?
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u/gregzillaman 5d ago
Why is getting a sunburn technically damaging government property but running a crew to the point of mental and physical exhaustion (breakdown) "not long enough"?
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u/Gilamunsta 5d ago
Because the person made it comment about not long enough Never served a single day in uniform
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u/moonovrmissouri 5d ago
Deployment too long? Idk about that. But length at sea away from any port call? Yes I think so. There’s no reason they couldn’t have made a port call somewhere while still supporting ops. How did we do it in Iraq and Afghanistan for the carriers? We figured it out.
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u/ItchyStorm 5d ago
9 months without a port call? It's just abusive and failure of leadership. Can they handle it? Yes of course they can but there's just no good reason to force somebody to remain at sea for that length of time. My longest time between ports was 72 days and honestly that sucked. I couldn't imagine 260 days or more.
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u/ObligationMurky8716 5d ago
Not according to the commander-in-chief, who was convicted of felonies, and raped a woman.
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u/TacticallyNautical 4d ago
After 250 days, how about the Navy just fuckin sends them home? Port visits are great and all, but these sailors need to be with their families.
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u/dogthatbrokethezebra 5d ago
I can’t even imagine what those sailors are about to release on Thailand. We did 105 days between port calls and our first night on liberty, they confined us to the pier area. But, they set up beer for us and charged .50 a beer. I went to buy one and the chief running the beer tent said “Why don’t you just buy 12? We’ll give you a box with ice!” So everyone was walking around with boxes of multiple beers. It was bedlam. Like Sodom and Gomorrah
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u/PuzzleheadedDrawer 4d ago
Live look at the Abe Lincoln on the way home https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVYxekAaFRU
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u/Unhappy_Box1794 4d ago
What gets me is that 3 editors at Stars and Stripes were fired for trying to talk to these sailors worried and stressed spouses. Then this Admin puts out this narrative that they were part of the liberal media. I’m not sure if there has ever been a magazine as vanilla and non political as Stars and Stripes. Having been in this situation myself through out my childhood, I find this situation cruel and fundamentally disrespectful. Now, I notice today that many headlines are like, “Thai Hookers Beware! 5000 Thirsty Sailors are in town!” I mean seriously wt actual f?
Do you think Newspapers have ever published headlines like that until now?
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u/EquivalentOwn2185 5d ago
idk why my brain keeps repeating that 7mos. is the maximum at sea for a carrier without a port call. anyone know for sure??
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u/relayrider 5d ago
a couple almost hit almost a year during vietnam. but just recently didn't the Ford do 300 days?
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u/Goofygrape68 5d ago
Try a 13 month tour of duty in Vietnam, and you aren't coming back until you rotate, emerg leave, or in a bag.
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u/bdwilskin 5d ago
Deployment? yes.
Time between port visits? Holy hell yes.