RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. The father of a 20-year-old sailor aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln has condemned President Donald Trump ’s war with Iran as a “forever war” and offered to take his son’s place as the aircraft carrier’s deployment stretches beyond 265 days.
Jefferson Kelly, of Cincinnati, Ohio , told Newsweek that his son had joined the Navy enthusiastically, hoping to serve his country and become an engineer, but after the Lincoln was sent to the Middle East, Kelly said the deployment became the realization of a fear he had carried since Trump’s return to the White House.
“I had a feeling that there’s going to be a forever war,” Kelly said. “If there’s going to be any issue, any kind of major engagement or war, they send the aircraft carriers... And that’s exactly what happened.”
Newsweek also spoke with the wife of a higher-ranking officer on board the vessel, who detailed how spouses had been trying to send care packages to the crew after reports of supplies running low and food deteriorating in the spring.
"Well, the care package took 2.5 months to get there. So that was concerning," Ashley Rogers said. "Now the most recent communications, even with my husband, who snaps into military mode, he just does his job, even he sounds so just defeated, and he has a really hard time getting his guys to cooperate and do their jobs."
Kelly’s comments come amid growing scrutiny of conditions aboard the Lincoln , which left San Diego on November 21, 2025, for a deployment initially focused on the Indo-Pacific.
The carrier was redirected toward the Middle East in January as the United States built up forces before launching joint attacks with Israel against Iran on February 28. The Lincoln and its air wing subsequently supported Operation Epic Fury and the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.
The Lincoln has now been deployed for close to nine months, and its approximately 5,000 sailors and Marines have faced an unusually extended period at sea, while family members have raised concerns about shortages, plumbing problems, disrupted mail, exhaustion and mental health.
Rogers said that crewmembers had been lacking basic necessities such as sanitary products, razors, and soap, as supplies ran dry because of the unexpected extension of the deployment. The Navy's resupply efforts had also been slow to arrive, she said.
Retired Vice Admiral Robert Murrett told Newsweek previously that deployments of this length place “a great deal of pressure on the ship and its crew,” including longer-term consequences for personnel, maintenance and future deployment schedules.
Reports from family members have included accounts of multiple sailors attempting or preparing to go overboard. The Navy has said it has not identified an increase in reported suicidal ideation or suicide attempts aboard the ship, while acknowledging that the carrier has operated in a “highly contested environment” where normal supply hubs were disrupted.
A sailor who went overboard in early August was safely recovered, and the circumstances are under investigation.
On Friday, Trump appeared to dismiss the worries and said that the deployment had not lasted long enough.
Kelly stressed that his concerns were not based on complaints from his son.
“He has not said anything to me about this,” Kelly said. “He has not reached out to me. He has not asked me to talk to anyone about it, nothing. This is completely 100 percent my doing and my initiative.”
Kelly said his conversations with his son have remained deliberately broad, covering his duties, what he has learned and ordinary family subjects rather than the reported conditions aboard the carrier. He said he was reluctant to ask questions that his son might feel unable to answer or that could place him in a difficult position.
The result, Kelly said, is that some relatives are left trying to reconcile reassuring but limited conversations with their loved ones against increasingly alarming public reports.
“You have someone that’s literally right there on the Lincoln that you can talk to broadly and generally about your day,” he said. “Then on the other side, you’ve got media that’s reporting on these horrible conditions. And then you’ve got someone there firsthand that you feel like you can’t ask about it.”
Rogers told Newsweek this had been particularly difficult for her, when the person she wants to talk to can't necessarily elaborate on what is happening.
"Here I am nine months single parenting with my husband gone and worried about him being in a war zone, and constantly wondering if the next news alert on my phone is going to be something devastating," Rogers, who has two young children, said.
"You have to put all that aside and try to be strong for them and make sure that they're doing okay, because they're not going to be able to carry the weight of everything they have going on, and everything else also going on at home."
Kelly said he understood why other relatives had spoken anonymously, particularly when their accounts involved information passed directly from sailors. But he decided to identify himself publicly because he feared another anonymous intervention would fail to break through.
“I fully realize that I may have inadvertently put a target on my son’s back. I hope I did not,” he said. “However, I felt that this issue, this situation, is beyond just my son. I feel like I want to do what I can to help all of these sailors get back home.”
The White House declined to comment on the situation when reached by Newsweek Friday, deferring to the Department of Defense. Newsweek also reached out to the Pentagon for further comment.
Kelly said his search for a solution led him to write to Ohio Republican Senator Bernie Moreno with an extraordinary offer: send him to the carrier in place of his son.
“I’m willing to put my...
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