nuclear-news

US Military Morale In The Middle East In The Overflowing Toilet

By Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance., August 13, 2026

Military Families Speak Out For Their Loved Ones….Again and Again and Again.

Rotten food, no room in the incoming missile shelters, confiscation of alert notification devices for incoming missiles (cellphones), infrequent mail, jumping off aircraft carriers, overflowing toilets.

Rotten food, overflowing toilets into bunking areas, no room in the incoming missile shelters, confiscated cellphones that are the notification devices for incoming missiles, infrequent mail, social media closed down, were some of the issues that military families identified at the national conference of Veterans For Peace.

Spouses and parents of Air Force, Army, Marine and Navy, members of Military Families Speak Out, told of plummeting morale, lack of basic supplies and attacks on U.S. military bases that are not reported in the U.S. media.

The frustration of the military families at the VFP conference echoed the descriptions of life on U.S. military bases in the Middle East under attack by the Iranian response to the brutal U.S.-Israeli 5-month attack on Iran made by military families who met with the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Navy and the Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet in San Diego on August 6, 2026.

Big Problems on Long Deployments for U.S. Naval vessels, Ships’ Infrastructure and Sailor’s Physical and Mental Health

On August 6, 2026, the Navy’s senior leadership held listening sessions with the families of aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln’s sailors – one in-person session in San Diego, and a second online session later the same evening. Family members leaked recordings of those sessions that described conditions aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln: showers plagued with stubborn mildew, flagging morale, heavy fatigue, shortages of supplies and food, contaminated water supplies and lost mail.

Since departing from departing Naval Base San Diego on November 21, 2025, the USS Abraham Lincoln and its crew of 5,000 sailors and Marines has been deployed more than 250 days, with only a stop in Guam in December and a brief visit in Oman in June after 208 days at sea.

A second aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford had similar problems when it sailed from the Caribbean to the Middle East after being off Venezuela in the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in January 2026. During that deployment, the ship’s toilets kept failing, with sewage often overflowing and spilling onto the floor. Additionally, a fire broke out in the laundry room, causing enough damage that the Ford went into a port on the Greek island of Crete for repairs.

More than 200 sailors were treated for smoke inhalation, with one sailor medically evacuated from the carrier, after being injured in the damage control effort. Two others were treated for lacerations.

The smoke damage from the laundry room fire extended to the berthing. More than 100 bunks and personal gear were destroyed in the fire.

Articles in Stars and Stripes   and the Navy Times  detail at least six  attempts by crew members to jump overboard from the USS Abraham Lincoln, with interviews conducted with sailors and families of those on board who described the impacts of the lengthy deployment.

USS Abraham Lincoln Sailor’s Father Proposes ‘Parent Swap’ To Replace His Son……………………..

Army and Marine Ground Forces Under Missile Attacks

Families of U.S. ground forces on the U.S. military bases scattered all over the Middle East describe overcrowding to no room in shelters against incoming missile and commands’ confiscating cellphones that are the notification devices for incoming missiles.

The U.S. military says that Iran watches social media postings of attacks and to prevent such postings, cellphones may be taken away, but families respond that notification of incoming missile attacks is by cellphone.

According to the news outlet War Horse, the only public source for injuries during the U.S. attack on Iran is the Defense Casualty Analysis System, which provides monthly totals  for the War on Iran with limited demographic data…………………………….

Hundreds of Troops Suffering From Head Trauma

A large portion of the wounded suffering from head trauma has led some military health experts to worry that traumatic brain injuries—caused by damage to the brain that can impact thinking, movement, and emotion—could become the signature injury of this war, as in the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

18 US troops have been killed and 624 wounded Since February 28

The Pentagon has attempted to reduce the accounting on the number of US military killed in wounded in the war on Iran by separating those killed/wounded before the May 1 ceasefire and after. The total killed and wounded before and after the ceasefire are 18 US troops have been killed and 624 wounded since the US began its war against Iran on 28 February……………………

Senate Armed Services Committee Finally Getting Involved

The U.S. Congress is finally getting involved. On August 12, 2026, Senator Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Armed Services Committee, wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Acting Secretary of the Navy to express “serious concern” about the increasing length of deployments and demand answers about living conditions aboard the carrier…………………………………..https://popularresistance.org/us-military-morale-in-the-middle-east-in-the-overflowing-toilet/

Ann Wright served 29 years in the U.S. Army/Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel.  She was also a U.S. diplomat for 16 years.  She resigned from the U.S. Department of State in March 2003 in opposition to the U.S. war on Iraq.  She is a member of Veterans For Peace, CODEPINK: Women for Peace, World Beyond War and many other organizations.  She is the co-author of “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.”  She lives in Honolulu, Hawaii.

August 17, 2026 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, USA