The two top officers of the U.S. Navy released a video Tuesday assuring sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt that their impending deployment would incorporate valuable lessons learned from the USS Abraham Lincoln’s historic deployment to the Middle East.
Following the Lincolns’ nearly 10-month deployment that saw 264 days without a port visit, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John Perryman said the Roosevelt will maximize its loadout of food and hygiene products before setting sail, among other improvements.
“As one carrier returns home, we listen to its sailors and families,” Perryman said in the video. “We capture what works and what didn’t and we make it better the next time.”
The Roosevelt, which is currently underway in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations conducting training, is set to replace the Lincoln in the Middle East as the Lincoln wraps up its Thailand port visit on its way home to San Diego, California.
Families of sailors aboard the Lincoln expressed concern on Aug. 11 during a San Diego town hall meeting with then-Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao that their loved ones were experiencing food shortages.
Those potential shortages appear to have been at least partially caused by Iran’s destruction of Naval Support Activity Bahrain, the main logistics hub for U.S. Navy ships in the Middle East.
Iran fired missiles and one-way attack drones at the base during a retaliatory strike on Feb. 28 during the opening salvo of Operation Epic Fury.
After the base was badly damaged, the Navy shifted its logistics operations to Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, an atoll in the Indian Ocean that sits more than 2,000 miles away from the service’s carrier strike groups in the Middle East.
Appearing to respond to these strategic hurdles, Caudle and Perryman said the Roosevelt’s crew was converting available spaces aboard the ship to become storage so that sailors could have the resources they need for longer when resupply may be more difficult to accomplish during a contested environment.
The Navy updated entertainment equipment on the mess deck and fitness equipment, the officers said.
Caudle and Perryman also said that the service was working with the Roosevelt’s ombudsman and family readiness groups to improve the channel of communication between them and the service.
Riley Ceder is a Navy reporter at Military Times, where he covers issues directly affecting service members and their families, as well as breaking news.