The Navy‘s top enlisted leader — Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Russell Smith — told sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington on Friday that there is little the branch can do to improve the living conditions aboard the ship.
Military.com reported April 20 that the carrier has experienced a string of suicides going back at least 10 months, including three suicides in a six-day stretch earlier this month.
In the wake of these deaths, Smith came aboard the ship and took questions from the crew. According to a transcript provided by the Navy, Smith began the session by telling the sailors that they “shouldn’t have clapped yet, cause you don’t know if I’m gonna say anything that’s worth clapping for, but I appreciate that.”
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The thrust of several of the questions posed to Smith focused on tough conditions endured by the crew that they say are fueling the crisis. When one sailor noted that “ships in the shipyard have higher rates of mental health issues and suicides,” Smith replied that, “Anecdotally, I believe the same thing.”
But the top enlisted sailor’s remarks offered nothing in the way of planned changes and were viewed by several sailors who attended and spoke to Military.com as lacking compassion.
The remark that stuck out to many of the sailors aboard — so much so that it generated a substantial reaction in Navy-focused social media groups — came when Smith told a sailor who had asked about living conditions that the Navy “probably could have done better to manage your expectations coming in here.”
Smith explained that “legally and from a safety perspective” the Navy was driven to move some of the crew onboard, before moving to an anecdote about him having to endure unpleasant conditions himself while stationed aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
The George Washington has been undergoing a massive refueling and complex overhaul at Newport News since 2017. The maintenance period, which typically lasts four years, is usually done halfway through a carrier’s 50-year life to refuel the nuclear reactor and see to repairs and upgrades.
In 2019, the ship was scheduled to be done in 2021. By 2020, that had changed to 2022.
Sailors who spoke to Military.com described conditions on the ship that make life aboard incredibly difficult. Some crew members have had to endure an active construction zone, complete with constant noise from power tools and outages to services like electricity and hot water.
Meanwhile, sailors who live off the ship describe hours-long commutes that involve parking far from the carrier and taking shuttle buses and mile-long walks.
“I hear your concerns and you should always raise them, but you have to do so with reasonable expectations and then understanding what … what this is like,” Smith told the crew.
‘What you’re not doing is sleeping in a foxhole like a Marine might be doing.”
The analogy struck one sailor who was present as underscoring the very problem facing the crew. “That should say something …. It ain’t even a f—ing combat zone,” the sailor said.
“You got people just going to work and coming home and f—ing killing themselves; they’re not even out there getting shot at or watching their friends die,” they added. “It’s just making it sound like the Navy has no intention of doing a single thing about [conditions aboard the ship] to make it even a little bit easier.”
Smith went on to explain that hardships like the ones the sailors describe are part of military service. “When someone walks by you at Starbucks when you’re in uniform and says ‘thank you for your service,’ this is one of the things that they’re thanking you for,” he explained. “I’m sorry I can’t give you the answer that you want, but that’s kind of where we are.”
Military.com spoke with two sailors who were present for Smith’s remarks, both of whom have been…
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