Posted on 08/21/2026 5:11:36 AM PDT by 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.
LOL! What did they sign up for?!
When I joined during Vietnam, they didn’t really ask “do you want to fight in a foreign country where everyone is trying to kill you?” What an entirely BS article, as usual.
and wear life jackets
Ignore that there is a problem, then deny there’s a problem, then blame the people reporting the problem, then insult the people affected. It’s a problem that needs to be addressed. There is a problem with logistics and resupply of our ships at sea. Ship crews need port calls to decompress from duty at sea. Under normal conditions life at sea is hard, but over two hundred days at sea without a break is unbearable. People need to be able to touch grass occasionally.
I was a Navy boot camp company commander when the hostages were taken by Iran. Made all the news. I had a company of 86 recruits. It was the first week of boot camp. I had two recruits who appeared at my office with their bags packed to go home. They told me they didn’t join the Navy to fight wars, just get the benefits. Ultimately they were discharged and sent home.
Back in the mid-sixties, I enlisted at 17 in the Navy. After boot camp, where I seriously thought about climbing the fence one night and going home, I was stationed on a tugboat in Mayport, Florida. There were sailors there that had been on the tugs for twenty years. I personally was never on a ship until I went to work in the shipyards after my discharge, Honorable, I might add.
Such a funny movie!
Then the should have joined the army or air force.
I’m really surprised the navy accepted them with such a low IQ.
……. and they VOTE.
Dear Lord, please guide and strengthen us.
Tatt
“Mother of Navy Sailor Tells NYT ‘They Didn’t Sign Up to Be on a Ship in the Middle of the Ocean’”
So the title quotes a NYT video to support the story and kind of links to it in the story, but through some guy who posted it on TwiXter.
As a matter of hindsight, he should have asked “will there be water” before he joined the navy.
Exactly, this is pretty much an expected event over time.
("Right. Off you go.)
It is not problem, your entire chain of thought fails at the very beginning.
Of the roughly 300k current active duty sailors we have this one story and I promise you there are a couple more. Lets be generous and call it 30, that is less than .01% who crack under rigorous military stress.
You can’t send a bunch of wet behind the ear pollywogs to war and expect to win. This is a adult’s game, played by adults
Thought it was the Bee.
Just being on that ship tells me her son is a specialist of some kind. I’m sure the son will not be happy with her interference.
Amazing. People who understand neither the military in general or the Navy in particular.
I might have bitched openly to my shipmates, but I knew that if I did, I would get a healthy dose of contempt back consisting of: “Pipe down, you pussy. You signed that contract. Nobody twisted your arm. You did that yourself. Man up and live with it.”
And there probably would have been no heat or overt anger behind that, just solid contempt.
Thing is, everyone complains about everything, and bitching is allowed, the way someone scratching their armpit is allowed. But the ones who get dedicated and nearly religious about bitching, well, they will bring everyone down and irritate the crap out of them.
So, some bitching is always allowed, and if done in a humorous or unique way, can even be allowed and laughed at. But not the constant drone of whining.
That is the way I remember it. I never had to spend 200+ days at sea, either, but I don’t think the attitude towards bitching would have been materially different.
I have always heard tug duty was pretty sweet-you didn’t spend a huge time out at sea, the crew was small and tight, and the chow was good.
I always wanted to ask someone who had tug duty if that was true or not!
Yep. Tagline is still accurate.
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