Day 253. Fully provisioned.

Ship's Stores

August 13, 2026 · Ibid.

Editorial cartoon: on a warship's mess deck, a labelled Pete Hegseth in a serving apron over his pinstripe suit dips an oversized ladle into a giant steel vat stencilled RESPECT (BULK) and pours a thin trickle onto the empty trays of gaunt sailors; a taped bulkhead sign reads DO NOT DRINK above the drinking fountain, and a padlocked cage of care packages on the deck is banded MAIL HELD. He says, 'Seconds?'

Sen. Richard Blumenthal has demanded answers from the Pentagon about conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, deployed more than 250 days with no port call in over 200. His letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Acting Navy Secretary cites shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing and deck safety problems, deteriorating mental health, and mail disruptions that stranded care packages for months; a sailor went overboard on August 3 and was recovered within an hour. The Navy says it has not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship, and Hegseth said conditions were 'completely misrepresented.'