The USS Roosevelt Carrier Group was dispatched with no fanfare to the Persian Gulf to relive the USS Washington, which relieved the brutally over-extended deployed USS Lincoln. To Pentagon Pete Hegseth its playing war, shuffling around ships like some war game. However for the Sailors and Marines aboard those ships (it’s not just the carriers themselves but their support ships too) it’s no game. Given the reason it’s based where it shifting the Washington to relieve the Lincoln instead of Japan where it could make China think twice about making a move was risky. However, at the time there wasn’t much choice with the Lincoln group (both the crews and the ships) ground down and the negative publicity. With no other carrier available the Washington had to relive the Lincoln, which still by the way is NOT yet home! However the Roosevelt became ready for deployment so it’s on the way.
The thing is, these aren’t little models of ships on some table top plot. They have crews. And serving at sea is demanding duty even in peacetime. In a war zone, carrying out operations long shifts become even longer. The extra replenishments required so they can fight means a chunk of the precious time crews might be able to grab some rest are taken up loading weapons and supplies (although apparently the proper amount of food wasn’t a priority with the Lincoln group). If you’ve never had a chance, should you for some reason find yourself in an area where a decommissioned Navy ship is berthed as a sort of museum make it point to go aboard. Look at the crew spaces, the chow areas, the ‘heads’ (toilets and showers) and the spaces for recreation like movies (it gets old watching the same ones over and over) or exercising. When Hegseth (as he likes to brag) ‘served in a war zone’ he had a reasonably comfortable room as befitting an officer, with good meals at a chow hall, and other amenities those who serve at sea don’t get. They live in incredibly cramped spaces, have to ‘whammo’ many meals in crowded mess spaces so the next group can come in, work incredibly long days, day after day and endure other hardships. Hegseth doesn’t know jack about what they go through. Or it seems understand how his incompetence and stubbornness negatively impacts national security.
In any case, as reported by USNI News once the Roosevelt arrives on station the Washington is headed back to it’s regular base, operating area where it is very much needed:
Carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) quietly departed Sunday from San Diego to sail across the Pacific for what is expected to be an extended Middle East deployment, USNI News has learned.
The carrier, the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 9, departed without the traditional pomp and circumstance – no sailors were spotted manning the rails, according to ship spotter photos. The carrier will embark with Carrier Air Wing 11. A defense official confirmed Theodore Roosevelt had begun its planned deployment.
The Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group is expected to move to U.S. Central Command to relieve the Japan-based USS George Washington (CVN-73), which entered U.S. 5th Fleet in mid-August. West Coast-based strike groups have been diverted from their traditional Indo-Pacific deployments to the Middle East in recent years amid tensions with Iran and the Yemen-based Houthis.
The linked article goes on to briefly explain how other units have been shuffled around to deal with both Iran and the Houthis (which get support from Iran I should add) in the region. The Roosevelt Group itself is projected to have a seven month deployment. Let’s hope that’s all it is. I’m sure both Officers and Enlisted on the Lincoln and it’s support ships know people on the Roosevelt and are wishing them luck – on their deployment only lasting seven months. Did I say it’s supposed to be a seven month deployment? Well, that’s the official line out of the Pentagon. However no less than the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy has already let the crews of the ships and their families know it’s likely to be longer:
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John Perryman said in August that Theodore Roosevelt families were planning for their loved one to be away from home for more than seven months, USNI News reported.
“[Sailors] will go do really hard things for me without really batting an eye because they like that part of it. But we do have to be able, when possible, to stick to schedules and be very honest, like we are with Roosevelt,” Perryman told reporters. “They know they’re going to be there longer than seven months. Their [commanding officer] is giving them eight months to plan on.”
I also think it’s a safe bet morale in the Roosevelt carrier group is less than optimal. Even if Democrats take control of both chambers of Congress AND manage (over likely objection of too many Republican Senators) to invoke the War Powers Act it’s a safe bet Trump will come up with some Rube Goldberg strategy to keep fighting his stupid, useless and destructive war. For those aboard those ships, and those they will join up with in the Gulf all bets on when they’ll get to come home are off.
After all, even after that grueling stretch in combat (even during Vietnam carriers at Yankee Station got time away for port calls and some shore leave!) the Lincoln is STILL not home!
Aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) spent more than eight months in the Middle East without the relief of a port call, USNI News reported. Lincoln, destroyer escort USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. (DDG-121) and the embarked Carrier Air Wing 9 were sailing near Hawaii en route to California on Sunday, a defense official told USNI News.
When they left the Gulf they stopped in the Philippines for some much needed shore leave and some replenishment – at least they wound up with a proper food supply! You probably figured it was intended to be a reward of sorts before heading across the Pacific to get home. Nope. They stayed deployed, and wound up spending some time in Guam. Again, I’m sure the crews took advantage of getting a little time off the ship and in place a lot nicer than Subic Bay (the Philippines) but what they really wanted and needed was to get home to their loved ones. Not to mention the Lincoln itself needs to get into dry dock right away for what instead of months of routine maintenance will turn into years.
However Hegeseth and Trump were embarrassed and while he never once had to dodge bullets when he served in a war zone (he was never attached to an infantry platoon or company so I don’t know how the hell he got the Combat Infantry Badge) but at least he had to dodge flying bottles of ketchup while Trump chewed him out. So Petey Boy decided to be dickish and would let a crew that was supposed to be home before summer started he forced them to stay deployed. You think those currently on station in the Gulf and those from the Roosevelt crew headed there don’t realize that?
How many experienced sailors and jarheads will take a hard look at all this and when the time comes to decide whether to “ship over’ (slang for re-enlist) will say no effing way! Wannabe Princess Ivanka ‘playing government’ during Trump’s first term was bad. Hegseth playing ‘Warrior Pete – Patton 2.0” is far worse.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
