What Went Wrong on the U.S.S. Lincoln?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Investing with Schwab is like spending a Saturday at a great farmer's market. You can fill your reusable tote with a bit of everything. Maybe you go for some free-range, self-directed investing. Or perhaps you pick up a few farm-fresh trades while you peruse. You can even get help from a dedicated advisor. That's full-service wealth management. Mix, match, and change your mind whenever you want. Because at Schwab, you can invest your way, no matter your goals or appetite for investing. Schwab has everything you need, all in one place. Visit schwab.com to learn more.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:36)
Hey. Hi.

**Rachel Abrams** (0:38)
It's Rachel Abrams. I'm one of the hosts of The Daily. It's very nice to meet you.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:43)
Yeah. Hey, it's nice to meet you too.

**Rachel Abrams** (0:46)
From the New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily. In recent weeks, family members of sailors have been raising alarms about the conditions on board the USS Abraham Lincoln.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:00)
This is a much longer deployment than it was supposed to be. They were gone so much longer than they were supposed to be gone. And it's hard.

**Rachel Abrams** (1:08)
There are 5,000 service members on the ship, and they've been at sea for nearly nine months straight without stepping foot on land.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:16)
I'm constantly getting asked, when's your husband coming home?
You know, you just have to say, oh, well, we're thinking June. No, we think July. Oh, we think August. You know, we don't really know yet, so just keep us in your prayers.

**Rachel Abrams** (1:29)
I spoke with the wife of one of those sailors. She said this isn't her husband's first deployment, but it has been the toughest.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:36)
I really cannot imagine being stuck in a floating box for, you know, however many, I can't even, I don't even know what the day count is now, but, you know, for 200 plus days for 24 hours.

**Rachel Abrams** (1:49)
She said she's concerned about the conditions on the ship and whether her husband is getting enough food.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:55)
He sends me a picture of his meal and I'm thinking, oh my goodness, on his plate, there was a few slices of bacon that did not look cooked, and like chicken wings, like a couple inches tall ones, and that was it.

**Rachel Abrams** (2:11)
When he sent you that picture of food, what was your first thought?

**SPEAKER_2** (2:14)
I was like, are you hungry? This is not okay. We're expecting people to fight for our country and yet we're not giving them a full meal.
That blows my mind.

**Rachel Abrams** (2:26)
She said she'd lost contact with her husband, sometimes for weeks at a time, as she watched reports on the news that American sailors were coming under attack. She didn't know how he was doing, and his return date kept getting pushed later and later.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:39)
I can just read his tone or the text, and he's just gotten more and more exhausted. So I just worry about him and a lot of other people mentally.
I'm not expecting the conditions for them to be in to be summer camp. They are in the middle of the ocean, and they are surrounded by not America. Nobody enters this life expecting it to be fun. This is a whole other level of bad.

**Rachel Abrams** (3:15)
Today, my colleague John Ismay explains what went wrong on the USS Lincoln, how it could impact the US military's warfighting capability, and what kind of toll it's taken on the men and women in uniform.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:28)
Yes, we kind of knew what we were getting into, but this is way harder than what it should be.

**Rachel Abrams** (3:40)
It's Tuesday, August 18th. John Ismay, welcome to The Daily.

**John Ismay** (3:46)
Thanks for having me.

**Rachel Abrams** (3:47)
So John, you are a former Navy man, if I'm not mistaken, and we just heard from the wife of a service member aboard the USS Lincoln. And I want to talk about sort of what the conditions on this ship have been like and how they fit more broadly into what the military is experiencing right now. But I want to just start with your understanding of some of the issues here, John. Tell us, when did you first start hearing that there were issues with the conditions on board this ship?

**John Ismay** (4:11)
Yeah, sure. So, I think it was about a few weeks ago, I started to see indications on social media, websites or outlets that cover military news.
And at first, they were issues that we've heard about from other deployments, such as, you know, morale taking a hit because they've been extended, trouble getting mail, trouble getting enough food. And I've gotten some photos of meals that people have taken from on board the ship and then sent to their family. One was a photo of what breakfast was like for most of this deployment. And it was sort of one square of a waffle and two sausage patties. Then there was another photo showing what a meal was like when CNN had a reporter and a camera crew aboard recently. Then there were eggs and there were vegetables. There was a whole bunch of food. And then I got a photo of what a meal looked like after CNN took part of the ship and it was back to pretty meager rations.