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US MILITARY MORALE IN MIDDLE EAST IN THE OVERFLOWING TOILET  
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Ann Wright
August 14, 2026
Consortium News
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_ Ann Wright says the frustration expressed by military families at a
recent Veterans for Peace conference echoed those of families with
relatives on U.S. military bases in the Middle East. _

U.S. aircraft on the flight deck of USS Abraham Lincoln on Feb. 28 in
support of the U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran., U.S. Department of
Defense /Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

 

Rotten food, overflowing toilets into bunking areas, no room in the
incoming missile shelters, confiscated cellphones that are the
notification devices for incoming missiles, infrequent mail, social
media closed down: these were some of the issues that military
families identified at the Aug. 6 national conference of Veterans For
Peace [[link removed]]. 

Spouses and parents of Air Force, Army, Marine and Navy members and
members of Military Families Speak Out
[[link removed]] told of plummeting morale,
lack of basic supplies and attacks on U.S. military bases that are not
reported in the U.S. media.

These frustrations echoed those of military families who met with
senior military officials to describe conditions on U.S. military
bases in the Middle East that are coming under attack from Iran in
response to the brutal U.S.-Israeli five-month offensive. 

On Aug. 6, the Navy’s senior leadership held listening
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sessions with the families of aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln’s
sailors — one in-person session in San Diego, and a second online
session later the same evening, according to _The Maritime Executive_.
Family members leaked recordings of those sessions to _MS NOW_
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described conditions aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln:
showers plagued with stubborn mildew, flagging morale, heavy fatigue,
shortages of supplies and food, contaminated water supplies and lost
mail. 

Since departing from Naval Base San Diego on Nov. 21, 2025, the USS
Abraham Lincoln and its crew of 5,000 sailors and Marines has been
deployed more than 250 days, with only a stop in Guam in December and
a brief visit in Oman in June after 208 days at sea. 

A second aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford had similar problems when
it sailed from the Caribbean to the Middle East after being off
Venezuela in the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and
his wife in January.

During that deployment, the ship’s toilets kept failing, with sewage
often overflowing and spilling onto the floor. Additionally, a fire
broke out in the laundry room, causing enough damage that the Ford
went into a port on the Greek island of Crete for repairs.

More than 200 sailors on the Ford were treated for smoke inhalation
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according to _USNI News_, “with one sailor medically evacuated from
the carrier after being injured in the damage control effort. Two
others were treated for lacerations. The smoke damage from the
laundry-room fire extended to the berthing.” More than 100 bunks and
personal gear were destroyed in the fire.

Articles in _Stars and Stripes_
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the _Navy Times _
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detail at least six  attempts by crew members
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from the USS Abraham Lincoln, with interviews conducted with sailors
and families of those on board who described the impacts of the
lengthy deployment.

Jefferson Kelley, the father of a USS Abraham Lincoln sailor wrote to
his U.S. senator, Bernie Moreno,
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asking Moreno to make an official inquiry to the U.S. Navy to see if
he could do a “parent swap” with his son, Jackson, 20, due to the
terrible conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Kelley said he had not been asked by his son to make the swap, but he
had read of the conditions on the aircraft carrier that included food
rations, safety concerns
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water contamination and poor mental health, which has purportedly led
to some sailors attempting to jump overboard during the 250 days at
sea and felt that he as a parent should share the burden.  

ARMY & MARINE GROUND FORCES UNDER MISSILE ATTACKS

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Satellite imagery of black smoke rising from the Port of Salalah on
March 13 during Iranian strikes on Oman. (CC BY 4.0 /Wikimedia
Commons)

Families of U.S. ground forces on the U.S. military bases scattered
all over the Middle East describe extreme overcrowding in shelters for
incoming missile attacks. 

According to the news outlet _War Horse_
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the only public source for injuries during the U.S. attack on Iran is
the Defense Casualty Analysis System, which provides monthly totals 
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the war on Iran with limited demographic data. 

More than 400 casualties (non lethal) were recorded from Feb. 28 and
April 8 due to the U.S. attack on Iran, _War Horse_ reports, adding:

“More than 270 of the roughly non-lethal 400 casualties were Army
soldiers, and about one-third of those were reservists. Enlisted
soldiers accounted for most Army casualties, including 57 sergeants
and 53 specialists. But also wounded were 64 Army officers, including
20 captains and 13 lieutenant colonels or colonels….

The Navy reported 64 casualties, none of whom were classified as
seriously injured. The Air Force recorded 51 casualties, and the
Marine Corps recorded 19. Unlike the Army, the other branches did not
list the type or cause of injury.”  

U.S. troops suffered shrapnel wounds, broken bones, smoke inhalation
and other injuries. But one category appeared far more often than any
other: head trauma.

At least 170 troops sustained head trauma between the start of the war
to early April, according to the data.”

Some military health experts, according to _War Horse_
[[link removed]], worry that
the large portion of the wounded suffering from traumatic brain
injuries —caused by damage to the brain that can impact thinking,
movement and emotion — could become the signature injury of this
war, as in the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The Pentagon has attempted to reduce the accounting
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on the number of U.S. military killed and wounded in the war on Iran
by separating those killed/wounded before the May 1 ceasefire and
after.

In a total accounting, from before and after the ceasefire, 18 U.S,
troops have been killed and 624 wounded since the U.S. began its war
against Iran on Feb. 28..

US SENATE FINALLY GETTING INVOLVED

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The bodies of six U.S. soldiers killed in the Port Shuaiba, Kuwait,
drone attack being transferred to the U.S. on March 7. (The White
House /Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain)

The U.S. Congress is finally getting involved. On Aug. 12, Sen.
Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Armed Services Committee, wrote a
letter
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to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Acting Secretary of the Navy
Hung Cao to express “serious concern” about the increasing length
of deployments and demand answers about living conditions aboard the
carrier.

“There have been widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies,
water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health,
deck safety concerns,” aboard the ship, he said in the letter, as
well as “disruptions in the mail system, which have caused many care
packages in route to the ship to be lost in transit for months.”

Blumenthal’s letter ends with six questions for Hegseth and
Department of Defense to answer concerning conditions on the USS
Abraham Lincoln and a call to treat servicewomen and men properly:

“The men and women aboard the Lincoln have answered the call to
serve their country. The Department owes them not only adequate
supplies, maintenance, and support during this deployment, but a
sustainable force-generation model that does not rely on repeatedly
extending sailors and ships to meet persistent operational demands. 

Our servicemembers deserve nothing less than the full support of their
government — and the American people deserve a military strategy
that is worthy of the sacrifices we ask them to make.”

 ANN WRIGHT SERVED IN THE U.S. ARMY/ARMY RESERVES FOR 29 YEARS AND
RETIRED AS A COLONEL. SHE WAS ALSO A U.S. DIPLOMAT FOR 16 YEARS AND
SERVED IN U.S. EMBASSIES IN NICARAGUA, GRENADA, SOMALIA, UZBEKISTAN,
KYRGYZSTAN, SIERRA LEONE, MICRONESIA, AFGHANISTAN AND MONGOLIA.  SHE
IS THE CO-AUTHOR OF _DISSENT: VOICES OF CONSCIENCE_.  SHE HAS BEEN
WITH THE GAZA FREEDOM FLOTILLA COALITION SINCE 2010, HAS BEEN PUT IN
ISRAELI PRISON TWICE FOR ATTEMPTING TO BREAK THE ILLEGAL ISRAELI NAVAL
BLOCKADE ON GAZA AND HAS BEEN ON SEGMENTS OF FLOTILLAS IN 2011, 2013,
2015, 2016, 2018 AND 2024.

_The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not
reflect those of _CONSORTIUM NEWS.

* USS Abraham Lincoln; USS Gerald R. Ford; Military Families Speak
Out;
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