1. United States
2. Ohio
3. Letter

The crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln is suffering after more than 260 days at sea. And a certain corner of the internet has decided they should just man up. There is a date every deployed service member carries in their head. It’s the day you’re supposed to come home. You don’t write it on a wall or say it out loud too often, because that feels like tempting fate. But it’s there. You count toward it in the quiet moments. Your spouse counts toward it. Your kids circle it on a calendar in the kitchen and cross off the days one at a time. You think you’re leaving on a Sunday, and then word comes down that it’s been pushed a week, and I promise you, even that lands like a punch to the gut. Because even the toughest soldier or sailor is still human, and because many have been running on empty for a long time, and that date was the thing they were holding onto. When it slides, something inside you sinks. The Lincoln left San Diego last November on what was supposed to be a routine deployment. It got rerouted to the Middle East to support Trump’s war with Iran, and it has been out there ever since. That’s more than 260 days at sea. Over 200 of those without a real port call, which is a modern-day record. The crew has set foot on land twice in all that time. Once in Guam, where many weren’t even allowed off the ship. Once in Oman, where the sailors who could leave were penned inside a secured compound in the port. That’s it. Two days of dry land in the better part of a year. The reporting on conditions aboard that ship should make every American angry. Families describe moldy showers, food shortages, sailors running out of soap, toothpaste, deodorant. These are the most basic things a person needs to feel like a person. There are reports of plumbing that doesn’t work. Mail from home rarely seems to make it. And worst of all, a mental health crisis that has reportedly led multiple sailors to try to go overboard. One did on August 3rd, wearing a life vest, pulled from rough seas by a rescue helicopter and treated as a mental health episode. All this and FAR MORE because a very corrupt president doesn't care and picked a fight he couldn't win without ever considering the consequences. Meanwhile, Congress has given up all of its constitutional duties and Trump runs amok all over the globe and in our Treasury. Where is the oversight? Where is the enforcement of our laws? Where are the hearings and investigations? If you don't care about all the law breaking and looting, at least care about the military like those on the USS Lincoln.