Mother of Navy Sailor Tells NYT ‘They Didn’t Sign Up to Be on a Ship in the Middle of the Ocean’

twitchy ^ | August 20, 2026 | Brett T.

[Red Badger]

VIDEOS AT LINK...............

This is how a narrative is built. As Twitchy reported, the wife of a U.S. Navy sailor who allegedly tried to jump overboard somehow came into contact with Natalie Oliverio, a reporter with The Military Times (which is not officially affiliated with the U.S. military). Oliverio published a piece that made it sound like sailors were jumping from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, port and starboard. The ship's deployment was supposed to end in May, and The Military Times made it sound like the extra three months had many sailors attempting suicide.

CNN's Erin Burnett picked up the story and amplified it, interviewing a sailor's wife. "Multiple U.S. sailors have reportedly tried to jump overboard the USS Abraham Lincoln amid poor conditions as the Iran war extends their deployment," Burnett posted to X along with the video clip. How many is "multiple"? The Military Times story gave two anecdotes.

Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao put out a statement indicating that "a small number of mental health cases were treated with no loss of life" during the ship's 266-day deployment. Sounds pretty standard among a crew of 5,000.

The New York Times is reporting on Thursday that the Abraham Lincoln headed home to California.

A day earlier, The New York Times had put together a video of a conversation with a family member of a sailor stationed on the Abraham Lincoln.

To be fair, she follows that up with "no port calls, no feet on the ground." You'll never believe that, in the full video, The Times reports that Erika Vandermeer second-guessed her support for President Trump when the Iran War kicked off.

Understandably, family members of any U.S. service member deployed would be concerned about them. But for one or two attempted suicides to have blown up into a weeks-long media narrative involving CNN and The New York Times is ridiculous. It's a transparent attempt to reduce morale among the public.

[AppyPappy]

Submariners would like a word

[P8riot]

While onboard the Eisenhower (CVN-69) sitting off the coast of Lebanon in 1983 for 93 days straight (no port visit), one of my shipmates wrote lyrics to "Country Roads", part of which were:

Been to Beirut, seen the slaughter
Seen the world too
Ya know it's mostly water.

[Thank You Rush]

Is that your own script? Great!

[Hot Tabasco]

I almost joined the Navy until I found out there was no water skiing.

[V_TWIN]

Then he should have enlisted in the Air Force

[dfwgator]

Monty Python, actually.

[central_va]

These guys that jump always seem to jump into nice warm water. Never into the North Atlantic in the winter.

[PAR35]

‘They Didn’t Sign Up to Be on a Ship in the Middle of the Ocean’

Yes they did.

Now, execute a few of the ones that tried to jump ship for desertion in the face of the enemy. That should encourage the rest of the crew and boost morale.

[meatloaf]

I remember being on a destroyer and seeing nothing but water to the horizon 360 degrees around the ship. I never wrote home about it.

Fun times.

[dfwgator]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK6hFk8jtvo

[johniegrad]

“Makes sense”? When someone enlists in the Navy, they know full well that in most cases they will be assigned to an ocean going vessel not shore duty. Fed up with these cry babies complaining about their lives on board. They have TV, movies, great food, phones, video games, romantic interests, etc. Certainly not your daddy’s navy.

This sort of thing is always happening in the Navy. It’s just a matter of a biased press trying to manipulate public opinion because a Republican is in office. It would be ignored otherwise.

Spent eight years as a naval medical officer (specialty psychiatry) from 1979 - 1987. Part of my duty was writing medical boards for sailors who needed to be discharged due to mental illness as unfit for duty.

There were also sailors who had personality disorders who needed to be administratively separated due to acting out and unsuitability.

There’s nothing new going on here.

[Thank You Rush]

Thanks - I’ll put it on my list for thriftbooks.com....Sounds good. I just finished one about the USS Indianapolis -
“In Harms Way”..I knew some of the story but by no means everything the crew went through...

[Bernard]

There used to be, but you had to row real fast to make it happen. And it was just one skier at a time.

[Thank You Rush]

“”Monty Python, actually.””

Thanks....

[bert]

Yes, they did

The sailor’s mother can’t grasp the fact he joined the navy to get as far away from her as he could

[Thank You Rush]

I have never seen that - thank you...

[P8riot]

I’m almost 70, and still think that being surrounded by open ocean is the coolest thing. Just sorry that my health won’t let me experience it like I did in my youth.

[Thank You Rush]

“”The sailor’s mother can’t grasp the fact he joined the navy to get as far away from her as he could””

That’s what my husband said about joining the Air Force...get him as far away from L. A. and his mother as they could - and they said after basic in TX and school in MS - “Is Iceland far enough?”

Iceland, it was!

[kinsman redeemer]

Maybe "mommy" thought "junior" was going to be working in the "old" navy.

[ansel12]

Of all the books I’ve read about the Marblehead, I saved Where Away for last, thinking that it would be the least useful, but it turned out to be the most meaningful for me because it was about the men and the ship as they intimately knew it and experienced it, I’m going to read it again.

Books on the Marblehead(and one movie)
Cruiser Flyboy: The USS Marblehead the ship that wouldn’t sink!

Escape from Java: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the USS Marblehead

THE STORY OF DR WASSELL book
THE STORY OF DR WASSELL movie 1944

Where Away: A Modern Odyssey