The commanding officer was standing before the sailors of the USS George Washington safety equipment. One of their own, Xavier Sandor, had taken his own life a few weeks earlier, in mid-April, and the captain had come down to talk to the approximately 110 young men and women who worked closely with him.
The conversation with Capt. Brent Gaut lasted two hours, according to four sailors present who spoke to CNN. In it, Gaut recognized what the sailors had felt for months. He said the crew had returned to the carrier too soon, the sailors recalled, but that it was too late to return.
Another sailor told CNN that Gaut spoke into the ship’s entire speaker system, known as 1MC or 1 Main Circuit, about two months ago and said the ship, which had been undergoing major maintenance, was not ready for sailors came aboard when the process began last time. summer. But he said, “There’s no turning back now. We can’t reverse course.”
CNN has reached out to the Navy for comment on Gaut’s comments.
The situation on the aircraft carrier drew national attention when three sailors killed themselves in one week last month. But twelve current and former George Washington crew members who spoke to CNN painted a disturbing picture of a ship with myriad problems, including what many said were dire standards of accommodation on the ship that was effectively a construction site, concerns about the quality of food and a feeling that the leadership was not addressing issues and dismissing complaints.
But they were not the only deaths on the aircraft carrier, as it remained docked at the Newport News shipyard. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has been going through its mid-life overhaul and refueling process since the summer of 2017. The process, which was initially expected to take four years, was delayed multiple times until at least March 2023, it said. The marine.
‘Horrible’ conditions
All of the sailors who agreed to speak to CNN said the ship was uninhabitable. Sailors began boarding the carrier about a year ago, after the ship had already been in its refueling and overhaul process for four years and was supposed to be ready to accommodate parts of the crew. Even after years of work to prepare the carrier for its next deployment, the ship remained a construction zone around the clock. The challenges of ship life often hit younger sailors harder.
“I was ready for a bullshit situation, but I had no idea it would be in the shipyards,” a sailor currently assigned to the George Washington told CNN. Most of the sailors spoke on condition of anonymity, fearful of the consequences of speaking about their own Navy careers or those of their friends.
In the last 12 months, the crew of the USS George Washington has suffered seven deaths, of which at least four are by suicide, the Navy said. Xavier Sandor, who worked in security on board the ship, according to those who knew him, took his own life on April 15, the third suicide in a week among the crew.
father of sándor, John SandorHe said his son was proud to join the Navy right out of high school, following in his grandfather’s footsteps. But Xavier once told his father that conditions on the ship were “horrible.”
“How do you sleep on an aircraft carrier with hammering and smoke and smells during the day?” John Sandor asked, demanding an explanation. “He would sleep in his car. No sailor should have been living on that ship in those conditions.”
The suicides become a tragic reality of the aircraft carrier, the sailors told CNN, rather than an aberration. “I wasn’t surprised. Being on the ship that long, that’s something I’ve unfortunately gotten used to,” said a second deckhand on the George Washington. “I’ve seen it, it’s nothing new.”
Aboard the ship, it was nearly impossible to find a quiet place to sleep, sailors said, and the ship suffered from constant power outages and no hot water. The berths often lacked ventilation, they said, and the ship’s massive metal frame amplified the outside temperature until it became unbearable.
“I would wake up in the middle of the night freezing,” another sailor told CNN. “I lived in my car in the winter, and it still felt better than my dock.” The sailor, who says he was 19 at the time, was shocked by conditions on the ship, far from his expectations of what life was like in the Navy. He lived in his car off and on for about 3 weeks, he says, until he got more used to the confines of the vehicle.
“This is the bottom line,” he told CNN, speaking of the situation on the USS George Washington.
The crew moved off the ship
Earlier this week, the ship’s commanding officer announced that about half of the more than 400 crew members living aboard the carrier would be moving to temporary housing off the ship. Others who wanted to do the same would also be given the opportunity. All the sailors who spoke to CNN agreed that it was the right thing to do.
When asked if the Navy was aware that crew members slept in their cars rather than on the ship, a spokesman for the US Naval Air Force in the Atlantic said that each sailor is “provided the means for housing,” and that the Navy will analyze whether housing was a factor. in suicides.
“Navy and congressional leaders have met extensively with current leaders aboard the USS George Washington, and they are confident that the leadership team is working hard, within and across their lifelines, to care for the crew.” “Commander Robert Myers said in a statement. to CNN. “Our current focus is to ensure that we provide a safe and healthy environment for our Sailors aboard GW, and that the leadership team on board has the resources to do so.”
A sailor shared with CNN messages from the ship’s digital suggestion box, where people could point out problems or share ideas. Many of the posts were classified as “Quality of Life” and focused on topics such as distant parking, low morale, or food. But rarely did anything change, the sailors said.
“Complaints are useless. You just have to suffer in silence,” said a fourth sailor assigned to the ship.
Even a full meal was sometimes hard to come by, several sailors told CNN.
“They would just run out of food, and if they did have anything left, it would be, if you’re lucky, a little bit of cereal or a chicken leg that may or may not be raw,” said the fourth deckhand who often worked night security shifts.
“The prisoners had better food than we had in the army,” said a sailor who had recently relocated off the USS George Washington. The baby carrier was his first assignment, and he says he developed a drinking problem for a while due to the living conditions.
“This is the craziest environment I’ve ever had to experience,” he said.
Two weeks ago, Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Russell Smith, the service’s top enlisted sailor, visited the George Washington and spoke with the crew. In a statement released later, he said his visit to the ship was an “open and honest dialogue” in which he wanted to “learn about the difficulties facing our sailors” and “understand his concerns.”
But when he told sailors they should have “reasonable expectations” and were not “sleeping in a trench like a Marine might be,” some crew members were surprised. The ship’s fourth sailor called it “offensive and ridiculous speech”.
“That’s not a reason we live the way we do,” the second deckhand said. “Things can be done to fix what we’re going through.”
Another former sailor assigned to the George Washington called the situation on board “unacceptable,” especially given the resources available to the military to address living conditions and quality of life.
“This is not Afghanistan where you expect those circumstances,” he said. “This is Newport News, Virginia.”
Research
Following the most recent suicides, the Army opened two investigations. The first, which is expected to be completed soon, looks specifically at recent deaths aboard the ship. The second, broader investigation will examine the climate and culture of command at the Newport News Shipyard, including housing, parking and quality of life issues.
The Navy is “confident that our comprehensive investigation and assessment of command weather and various quality of life issues will identify areas for future improvement and provide recommendations for immediate action,” said Cmdr. Myers.
US Naval Air Force Atlantic Commander Admiral John Meier said the ship also added more mental health resources, such as a special intervention team and an additional psychologist. Crew members aboard the USS George Washington will also have access to telemental health resources and shipboard training for young Sailors.
The increase in mental health resources is long overdue, according to Sailors who spoke with CNN. Although the ship had a clinical psychologist, the sailors said they would have to wait months for an appointment.
When Jacob Grella, who spent most of his time in the Navy assigned to the George Washington, found out he was assigned to the carrier, which was just a short drive from his family in Richmond, Virginia, he said on Facebook that he was “so fucking happy.” . But it didn’t take long for her occasional weekend trips home to turn into an opportunity to escape the ship.
Grella said he tried to schedule a visit to the ship’s psychologist during his last year on the ship.
When he did, he found himself with “a six-month waiting period,” at which point he “would have been almost out of the Navy.”
Despite their frustration, Grella and many of the other sailors who spoke to CNN believed a profound change in the ship’s culture and climate could be achieved.
“I think it’s definitely possible,” he said, “but for that to happen, I think at this point everyone needs to be held accountable. You need to start looking at what’s causing the setbacks and who’s causing this negative treatment and the mentality in these poor children”.
Editor’s Note: If you or a loved one has contemplated suicide, call National Lifeline for Suicide Prevention at 1-800-273-8255 or text TALK to 741741.
The CNN Wire
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