NPR Removes References to Trump, Adds Details on Sailor's Weight Loss

− Mark Kelly discusses conditions aboard the USS Lincoln NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer asks Democratic Sen.

− Mark Kelly of Arizona about conditions aboard the USS Lincoln and President Trump's multi-billion dollar plan to restore older tech on aircraft carriers.

− Mark Kelly discusses conditions aboard the USS Lincoln August 17, 20266:49 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition Sacha Pfeiffer Sen.

− Mark Kelly discusses conditions aboard the USS Lincoln Listen &middot; 4:59 4:59 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5933015/nx-s1-9889622" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer asks Democratic Sen.

− Mark Kelly of Arizona about conditions aboard the USS Lincoln and President Trump's multi-billion dollar plan to restore older tech on aircraft carriers.

− Sponsor Message Transcript SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST: Now let's talk more about the USS Lincoln with a lawmaker seeking answers from the Trump administration, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona.

− He's a former Navy combat pilot and NASA astronaut who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Good morning, Senator Kelly.

− MARK KELLY: Good morning, Sacha.

− PFEIFFER: We mentioned earlier in the show that you've been in touch with relatives of sailors aboard the USS Lincoln.

− What are you hearing from them?

− KELLY: Well, we're hearing that the conditions are not what they or any sailors should expect. And, you know, they've deteriorated over a period of time because they've been at sea for a record amount of time. I spoke to a grandmother of a sailor aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln who said, you know, her grandson, who, you know, was skinny when he joined the Navy, now looks like he's lost 20 to 25 pounds and is struggling. And it's depressing, and it's a difficult - very difficult situation.

− And, Sacha, I have to say, kind of the worst thing about this is just this - the dismissiveness of the situation, you know, not only from the president, who said the deployment is not nearly long enough, but the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, who just claims there's no problem. I'd say Admiral Cooper, you know, when he said this is...

− PFEIFFER: This is the head of CENTCOM, U.S. Central Command. KELLY: Yeah, the head of CENTCOM. When he said this is a consequential deployment - I think that's - you know, that was - that's what you said in your reporting. Yeah, it's consequential in a lot of different ways. I mean, they got deployed to go to war without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline. Now they're stuck and don't - you know, the administration can't figure a way out. And the consequence of this is just poor mental health and crew members jumping overboard. PFEIFFER: The head of CENTCOM, who you just mentioned, Brad Cooper - the statement he issued over the weekend also described his visit as awe-inspiring. And he says that the Lincoln has, in his words, quote, "the lowest number of cases related to mental health" of the Navy's 11 aircraft carriers. Your thoughts on his comments? KELLY: Well, I haven't looked at the data, but when you have crew members jumping off because of the conditions - I mean, literally, jumping off the ship to end their lives - that's a problem. And it needs to be investigated. So that's why, you know, myself and my colleagues are demanding an investigation. And you're misrepresenting an issue and you're ignoring an issue when you have crew members that are trying to end their lives because of what this deployment has been like for them. PFEIFFER: You said you're calling for an investigation. What else do you want the Trump administration to do? KELLY: Well, we'd like to get a bipartisan delegation out to the ship to visit it. I - you know, I did two deployments to the Persian Gulf myself, if I have an opportunity to get out there. I've spent a lot of time aboard aircraft carriers. I think I could get a pretty good sense for, you know, how things are going. And we're going to continue to press this administration until our service members and their families get answers and get some accountability. This administration, on every issue, tries to avoid being accountable for their actions. PFEIFFER: You just mentioned you've been deployed. As we said, you're a former Navy combat pilot. When you think about this deployment, which - the Lincoln has been out there for nearly nine months - how does it compare to your own deployments? And what concerns do you have about the people on that vessel? KELLY: Well, for Desert Storm, I think, from the time we left to the time we got back was about seven months. But we had port calls about a month and a half in. I think probably the longest, you know, we went was maybe, you know, four months without pulling into port. These guys are now approaching - I think they're over 200 days. And it's stressful. Being on an aircraft carrier is - it's hard. It's not expected to be easy, but when there's no end in sight - you know, it's loud. When the food is lousy, and it sounds like it is, when you can't get basic - your basic needs met, you're going to have, you know, a situation here that's - it's going to be hard for these crew members. And this administration just does not want to address it. PFEIFFER: Briefly, we mentioned the George - that the USS George Washington is being deployed to relieve the Lincoln. That means the U.S. will be without an aircraft carrier ready for deployment in the Pacific for some time. In your view, does that make a difference to national security? KELLY: Well, it's not unprecedented that the - I was in that battle group. It was stationed in Japan - Battle Group 5. We went to the Persian Gulf twice. Usually, it's backfilled by a carrier from, you know, California. I don't know if that's the case here. It's not good for ours and our allies' national security in the western Pacific not to have a carrier there, but I'm not sure what their plan is here. Usually, this administration doesn't have a plan. PFEIFFER: That is Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona. Thank you for coming on this morning. KELLY: Thank you. Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. 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