A Navy warship in the Middle East has been visited by a top admiral amid reports of sailors jumping overboard.
The USS Abraham Lincoln has been deployed for over 200 days since the outbreak of the Iran war.
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Admiral Brad Cooper, the commander in charge of the US’s Middle East operation, admitted it was the “most operationally intense and consequential of the modern era”.
He visited the strategically important aircraft carrier just days after reports of a mental health crisis on the warship with over 5,000 troops aboard.
The US military said on Saturday Admiral Cooper finished a ten-day trip across the Middle East with a visit to the USS Lincoln,
“During Cooper’s latest trip, he addressed the entire Lincoln team and thanked them for their tremendous dedication and courage,” the military said in a statement.
The Navy confirmed that at least one sailor had been recovered from the sea after it was revealed by CNN.
The sailor was picked up by an air search and rescue helicopter, treated by the ship’s medical department and transferred off ship for further care.
Family members of sailors onboard the USS Lincoln have told military news outlets there were multiple attempts to jump from the ship, some of which had only been stopped thanks to the intervention of fellow troops.
But Donald Trump has downplayed reports of a mental health crisis.
Asked if the deployment had gone on for too long, he said: “No, not nearly long enough.”
And Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of War, said the situation had been “completely misrepresented” by the media.
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“We make sure every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment,” he said.
Mr Trump said another warship would soon replace the USS Lincoln, adding that family members were not worried about the situation.
Annabelle Loma, the wife of a serviceman, has directly appealed to Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao after her husband expressed fears he would receive a dishonourable discharge “just because he was burnt out”, according to the Navy Times.
Another military spouse told the Acting Secretary she received a message from her husband saying “he hopes he doesn’t wake up tomorrow”, according to military magazine Stars and Stripes.
In a statement released on Friday, Mr Cao addressed the claims and said the aircraft carrier would soon “return home” after its sailors “crushed their deployment”.
“Sailors and marines are expected to dig deep – and they always do,” he said.
Mr Cao said the media was attempting to depict “our warriors as victims”, but admitted a “small number” of mental health cases had been treated, meal plans had been adjusted and calls home were “limited”.
Democratic politicians have criticised Mr Hegseth for the situation aboard the warship.
Senator Ruben Gallego, who served in Iraq, called for an “oversight investigation into this horrible situation”.
And Mike Levin, a Representative from California, said the warship had “mouldy showers, broken toilets, no hot water for weeks, meals that came down to half a cup of rice and two tortillas”.
A US Navy official said: “Based on information available to the command, we have not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship. We take every service member’s wellbeing seriously and have religious, medical and mental-health professionals available to assess and address concerns as they arise.”
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