How Trump Slaps Lincoln in the Face on the Ship Bearing His Name

A 19-year-old sailor with a wife the same age, along with a 7-month-old daughter and a 3-year-old son, is reported to have reached a limit on Aug. 3 aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

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The aircraft carrier’s namesake had famously cited the nation’s obligation “to care for him who shall have borne the battle.”

Our current president, Donald Trump, had never himself borne battle, but he had heedlessly sent others to face it in his own war of choice, this time against Iran. He was cheered on by his self-proclaimed “warfighter,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

One result was that the teenage sailor and his 5,000 shipmates on the USS Abraham Lincoln were deployed long after they were initially scheduled to return. He was at sea when his second child was born and was still there after 255 days when he reportedly went overboard. The Navy suggested he may have fallen. His wife told MS NOW that he leaped and was in the water for an hour before he was pulled out.

“I think the boat is finally getting to me and I really dont think i can keep up my peace act anymore,” he had reportedly texted his wife in San Diego beforehand. “you are right about it all not being okay, we were supposed to leave 5th fleet on july 15th but then something had to come up and my last hope of being home soon was gone, im really trying to not feel negative or hopeless but between the wifi and not knowing when i will come home and not knowing what is happening back at home, its really getting me, i dont think i can do another deployment after this and i dont even know if i can finish this deployment.”

The USS Abraham Lincoln remained in the Middle East amid a mix of rumors and substantiated reports about deteriorating conditions while those on board conducted around-the-clock combat operations. Bad water. Insufficient food. Unsanitary conditions.

One sailor’s mother, Angela Kelly, is herself a Navy veteran and told the Daily Beast that the day-to-day physical circumstances aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln are not dramatically worse than what she experienced when she was at sea on a deployment. She said her son is able to get packages and mail, though they are somewhat delayed.

But the long-delayed homecoming has been complicated for Kelly and many other families in the floating, claustrophobic city of 5,000 because the ship’s home port was changed from San Diego, California, to Bremerton, Washington.

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Kelly’s son and his wife are “dual military,” both active duty in the Navy. They had two children, ages 6 and 3. Her daughter-in-law had to transfer to somewhere near the new home port, sell their old house, and move into a new house in Washington state. She was only able to find child care for the older one there. Her own mother had to fly in to tend to the younger one.

Kelly’s son is occasionally able to FaceTime with the kids from aboard the ship. She says the young one does not fully understand where daddy is and why he is not there.

“The younger one doesn’t get the concept yet,” Kelly says. “The older one will just be very quiet.”

But relief is reportedly on the way. The USS George Washington is said to have left Da Nang in Vietnam, once a major base in the war that Trump secured five draft deferments to avoid. He is now sending this other aircraft carrier with 5,000 aboard from the scene of the battle he dodged in Southeast Asia to a battle he started in the Middle East.

The USS Abraham Lincoln is expected to make the two-week voyage to San Diego before proceeding to its new home port. Kelly’s daughter is getting married in October, and is heartbroken that the prolonged deployment will likely prevent her brother from attending.

“She was very, very emotional about it,” Kelly said. “You know, like, very emotional. But I guess she’s accepting it more. Like, she can’t change it. And my daughter-in-law and the girls will be there.”

She was then struck by a possible added twist in their conflict where so many lives are being upended while those in power shrug.