A retired US Navy chief petty officer has warned that open-ended deployments like the one gripping the USS Abraham Lincoln wear sailors down until morale collapses.
Thomas Nutzmann, who served 20 years in the Navy and deployed four times, said the uncertainty of not knowing when a deployment will end is one of the hardest parts of life at sea. 'There's no Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, it's just a day,' he said, describing the experience of being underway for months on end.