NORFOLK, Va. — A top Navy admiral is pushing for greater transparency around deployment lengths, as sailors continue to spend record amounts of time away from home.
Navy Admiral Daryl Caudle addressed the growing concern over extended deployments Wednesday during an event in Norfolk.
"I think sailors and families if we know we're going into harms way we should be able to project with little more fidelity how long the carrier, the striker is going to stay on station," Caudle said.
Caudle said ideally, deployments would last seven months. But recent deployments have seen sailors at sea for much longer.
Retired Naval Vice Admiral Herm Shelanski described what happens when sailors are kept out beyond expected timelines.
"It gets pretty rough. It gets rough on the ship because of maintenance, it gets rough on the crew morale," Shelanski said.
While Caudle said recruitment has not been impacted yet, Shelanski warned that could change.
"You know if they're extended for these extended periods then the consequence of that is that many of these experienced sailors may be disheartened and say I don't want to go through that again and get out," Shelanski said.
Shelanski pointed to the USS Lincoln as a prime example of the strain. Those sailors have been deployed more than 250 days, mainly supporting the war with Iran.
"You hear a lot of bad press about what's going on especially what's happening on the Abraham Lincoln, shortage of food, problems with the toilets," Shelanski said.
The only ship deployed longer than the Lincoln since Vietnam is the USS Ford, out of Norfolk, which was at sea for 326 days before sailors returned to Norfolk in May.
Shelanski acknowledged the difficult reality of wartime service.
"The enemy has a say in how long we need to be out there. It is wartime and we did sign up for this," Shelanski said.
Still, Shelanski expressed confidence in the Navy's leadership.
"I can tell you that the leadership that's out there, the captain, the department heads, the air wing commander, and all of the squadron commanders, their leadership today is probably the best in the world," Shelanski said.
Shelanski said his heart goes out to military families waiting for their loved ones to return home, and he hopes the Navy can stick to the seven-month deployment goal.
Click here to see how we use AI at WTKR News 3.
