Captain of the USS George Washington, Brent Gaut, said that the ship will begin moving 260 sailors "to an offsite barracks-type living arrangement on Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth" in the state of Virginia, according to the military.com news outlet.
Norfolk.- "We'll be able to expand that number at about 50 additional beds per week as we figure out exactly what is needed," Gaut stated. The move comes at the end of a month that saw three sailors aboard the ship dying by suicide, after a previously undisclosed string of suicides going back to at least July of last year.
The news outlet added that it has been able to confirm at least five suicides by sailors assigned to the warship in the last 10 months - the Navy has disputed the cause of death for one of those sailors - and eight in total since November 2019.
The development follows an April 22 visit to the ship by the Navy’s top enlisted official, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Russell Smith, during which the crew was informed that the U.S. Navy is largely powerless to improve conditions.
Smith further told a sailor who had asked about living conditions that the Navy "probably could have done better to manage your expectations coming in here" before informing the crew that raising concerns should be done "with reasonable expectations and then understanding what ... what this is like."
"What you're not doing is sleeping in a foxhole like a Marine might be doing," he emphasized. According to the commanding officer, the ship currently has 422 sailors living on board. Since sailors typically do not receive an allowance for housing until the E-5 rank, those living aboard a ship while it's in a shipyard tend to be the most junior crew members.
The captain noted that sailors will still have to sleep aboard the ship when they stand duty - a Navy practice in which a portion of the crew remains aboard the ship overnight to be ready to respond to emergencies.
The news comes as details about who has died aboard the aircraft carrier and how are slowly coming to light amid mixed messages reported by the crew. Sailors reported that Gaut told the crew on April 11 that the ship had had nine suicides in nine months. Another death followed on April 15; Gaut told the crew it also was a suicide. The Navy has yet to confirm or deny that Gaut relayed those numbers to the crew.
emotional over the situation in Ukraine, saying he is a sociopath who has a “complete disregard for human life.” The Navy, meanwhile, did not provide details on who those sailors were and referred inquiries to local law enforcement for the cause of death.
The Navy also disclosed that there were three additional suicides dating back to November 2019. Regardless of the final count, George Washington has experienced a cluster of suicides unheard of in recent years, though suicide rates have been climbing alarmingly for service members across the services.
Rear Adm. John Meier, commander of Naval Air Force Atlantic, said in a statement this week that "while the Navy is a resilient force, we are not immune from the same challenges that affect the nation that we serve." (RHC)
