Families of sailors and Marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln are voicing outrage over what they describe as deteriorating living conditions and exhausted crews, as the aircraft carrier enters its ninth month at sea and fifth consecutive month of combat operations against Iran.

MS NOW reporter Priya Sridhar, speaking on MSNBC's Deadline White House with anchor Nicolle Wallace, cited accounts from families describing widespread hardship aboard the ship. "Moldy showers. Food shortages. Sailors running out of toothpaste, deodorant and soap," Sridhar said, relaying statements from family members of frustrated service members.

MS NOW spoke with approximately a dozen family members who expressed deep concern about morale, safety, and overall conditions on the vessel. According to Sridhar, three family members agreed to speak publicly, while others requested anonymity due to fears that the military might retaliate against their loved ones still on board.

"The families told MS NOW there is no indication of when their loved ones are going to return home, as the routine seven-month deployment for the 5,000-plus crew members appears to have been extended for a second time," Sridhar reported.

Family members described sailors working grueling shifts with few days off. One father, himself a Navy veteran, said his son reported seeing holes worn through the Lincoln's flight deck.

"Deployment was extended for a second time, and they're concerned that this could lead to accidents that could potentially turn deadly," Sridhar said. She added that families reported sailors and Marines unable to take hot showers, nonoperational toilets, no access to working laundry facilities for weeks at a time, and lines of one to two hours just to enter the ship's store — only to find empty shelves lacking basic hygiene items such as toothpaste, deodorant, and soap.

The families' safety concerns about crew fatigue echo issues identified in formal Navy investigations following the 2017 collisions of the USS Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain, which killed 17 sailors combined and were attributed in part to exhausted crews, inadequate training, and deferred readiness.

Sridhar noted that families are also hearing reports about the nation's diminishing stockpiles of munitions, which they say President Donald Trump and his defense secretary are expending on the Iran campaign, alongside a $67 billion Department of Defense budget request. They want their loved ones' conditions to be part of that broader conversation.

U.S. Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran, told Wallace that the Trump administration has been diverting funds Congress allocated for service member welfare toward other priorities.

"Not only are they not doing their job and they're derelict in their duty, but they're … literally stealing money from pots of funding that Congress has allocated for wellness for our troops and their families," Crow said. "We allocated last year billions of dollars for construction of new barracks and new housing on our bases. This administration stole that money for Trump's border wall. We allocated money for … health care for our troops. And time and time again, they reprogram — they take money out of those pots that we put into welfare and quality of life for our troops and their families, and they allocate it to contingency operations for their endless war to border operations."

"So enough is enough," Crow concluded. "We are going to retake power in November. We're going to put some guardrails in place, and we're going to start doing the right thing."

Source: MS NOW / YouTube