SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – U.S. Navy sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln are finally on dry land after the aircraft carrier docked in Thailand on Wednesday for the first time in nearly 290 days at sea.
“You miss your family, you miss your kids, it's really hard for parents, you miss your girlfriend or your boyfriend; life is passing you by while you're out doing your job,” Shawn VanDiver, a U.S. Navy veteran, said.
VanDiver served in the U.S. Navy for 12 years and had his fair share of deployments at sea.
“I did several deployments both down to South America and across to the Middle East,” VanDiver said. “Life at sea is arduous, and it's tedious sometimes, and it can get really, really hard, and you only have, you know, so much real estate to cover.”
The Lincoln’s journey home to San Diego comes after a longer-than-expected deployment and reports of dirty conditions.
According to ABC News at a Navy town hall, families of those on Lincoln said there were moldy showers, broken toilets and food shortages.
There are also reports of a sailor going overboard from the ship in July.
“If you're just working nonstop, you're fighting a war, you're working nonstop, you might not have time to call home, even if the technology exists,” VanDiver said. “So, it's a really grueling pace, and you need those breaks in there. You need those port visits in there. You need those, that downtime to sort of recuperate, right? And recover from these things.”
A U.S. official previously told ABC 10News: “We have not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship. We take every service member’s well-being seriously and have religious, medical and mental health professionals available to assess and address concerns as they arise. USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) has five Navy Chaplains, one clinical psychologist, one clinical social worker, three behavioral health technicians and an embedded integrated prevention coordination (EIPC) counselor. The ship also has an expeditionary facility dog, CAPT Fathom, to support crew morale and emotional welfare. These resources are available to Sailors and Marines throughout the Strike Group 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”
VanDiver told ABC 10News he hopes that the sailors are able to take a break and have a chance to take that proverbial breath before heading home.
“Look, coming home from a deployment is hard. The whole world has been passing you by, and you get there and, and reintegration with your family is hard, right?” VanDiver said. “It's not all sunshine and rainbows; it's really hard, even under the best of circumstances; even when you haven't just been on this horrific deployment with the whole world watching.”
