The aircraft carrier USS George Washington, a nuclear-powered Nimitz-class carrier, has now been moored at the Newport News, Virginia, shipyard since 2017.
And between last year and April 2022, 7 sailors working on it died, 4 of them were apparent or confirmed suicides.
After CBS News reported the deaths, a Navy spokesperson told The Hill that there were 3 additional suicides before 2021, in November 2019, July 2020 and October 2020.
The ship’s sailors spoke to the media about conditions on board, with one of them saying they had also attempted suicide, largely due to working conditions.
For its part, the US Navy acknowledged the problems with this aircraft carrier, and said it was investigating the deaths.
But Crystala Feringia Bushnell, vice president of 22 Till Nothing, a volunteer organization that aims to provide resources to active duty members and veterans, says her group has heard from sailors and their families about the dire conditions in George Washington, and that some fear access to The resources the military provides because their leaders can tell.
“There’s a lot of mistrust there,” she said. “We get emails and messages daily on all three of our social media platforms and through email asking: Is there anyone I can talk to about me who won’t find out?”
Conditions on board
In turn, Democratic Representative Eileen Luria, who represents the area where the ship is docked, wrote a letter to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday asking about the weather on board.
Luria, a Navy veteran who retired with the rank of captain, recounted her own experiences working on aircraft carriers moored on lengthy repairs.
“Being in a shipyard, it’s an industrial environment,” she explained. “You don’t have basic services like hot water, lights, heating and cooling, quality food.”
Chief of Naval Officer Russell Smith had a phone call with sailors aboard the USS George Washington, last Monday, during which he answered multiple questions about mental health and conditions on board.
But Smith raised eyebrows when he said that although conditions (in the moored ship) could have been better, “what you don’t do is sleep in a hole like a Marine.”
Virginia Bushnell said Smith “completely ignored all the continuing concerns of the seafarers on that ship”.
“These are the fears that have been constantly brought up and ignored. And those who have suffered in this environment, not only are their fears ignored, but their feelings for it or the hardship it causes them are ignored, as they are ridiculed for it.”
Among other measures implemented, the Navy told The Hill that it mobilized a special 13-person psychiatric rapid intervention team to provide services aboard the aircraft carrier from April 16 through April 19.
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