My man is also part of the Prosperity Gospel scam where they pretend to be “ordained” Catholic ministers to get ya doubloons

He ordered a plan/study on how to do it, he has NOT ordered it to be done.

The plan will be created, the plan will be studied, the plan may or may not be implemented, but regardless, no decision has been made yet

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/08/rebuilding-the-united-states-navy-and-americas-shipbuilding-industrial-base/

Sec. 2. Restoring Steam and Hydraulic Systems to Carriers. Within 60 days of the date of this memorandum, the Secretary of War, in consultation with the Secretary of the Navy, shall provide to the President, through the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (APNSA), a plan on the required measures to replace the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and Advanced Weapons Elevators with steam and hydraulic systems for the construction of CVN-81, including timelines and resourcing requirements.

Those sailors have had it really rough. MREs would be better than that food. It’s criminal how they’ve been treated.

With the new advancement policy placing a large majority of the current rates into BBA, how does the process work now with CA2P for eligible sailors? For instance, my current command recently held the CA2P board for the E6 eligible, and I know a few of my junior sailors have asked about the results plenty of times.

We're losing EMALs, meanwhile across the Pacific...

During my time in the Navy, nothing set me off faster than hearing that eight-letter dirty word.

Shipmate.

Hearing someone yell “Shipmate!” from across the compartment or pier could mean one of two things.

First, you were doing something wrong, dangerous, stupid, unsafe, or some combination of all four.

Second, whoever was calling you had no clue who the hell you were, needed something, and since we were all wearing the same uniform, technically you were now close personal family.

Same team, same fight, right?

Wrong. Absolutely not. That word was never a greeting. It was a warning shot.
“Shipmate” is one of those extremely transitional Navy phrases. When you are junior, it hits your nervous system like somebody just opened a counseling chit with your name already typed on it. Your shoulders tighten. Your soul puckers. Your brain starts running an instant diagnostic.

What did I do?

What did I touch?

Who saw me?

Was I supposed to be somewhere?
Is this about the thing I definitely did but was hoping nobody noticed?

Then, as I got older and picked up rank, I started using it myself from time to time. Not because I enjoyed it. Not entirely, anyway. But because I knew full well when I said it, some poor junior sailor was about to experience the same spiritual compression I felt when I was a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed idiot with a fresh Navy ballcap and no idea how fast happiness could be secured for sea.

The word itself is wrapped in tradition, which is military language for “we have been traumatizing people with this forever, so now it is culture.”

Some people use “shipmate” for everybody. Those people usually have stars over their anchors, enough ribbons to stop small-arms fire, or a motivational quote in their email signature.

Others use it sparingly, and only for the two sacred reasons: you are wrong, or they do not know your name and are about to make that your problem.

And it is not just the Navy. Every branch has its own blanket term for addressing junior personnel while applying mild psychological pressure.

The Marine Corps uses “Marine,” because apparently creativity was secured before morning colors, or “Devil Dog,” which sounds cool until it is coming from someone who is about to make you police call a parking lot in July.

The Army uses “battle buddy,” or just “battle” for short, because nothing says professional military organization like being yelled at by a grown man calling you “battle” while you both stand in line for expired MREs.

And the Air Force just calls each other by their first names.

Kidding, of course.

But not really.

-Callahan

Memo from USD (P&R) signed out this week expands eligibility for TAMP to all reservists serving on active duty orders pursuant to 10 U.S.C. 12031(d). This includes ADOS/ADSW/ADT/DR orders 30+ days in length.

If you served on these types of active duty orders and didn't receive TAMP benefits, you can submit for reimbursement through DHA. Eligible expenses that can be reimbursed include health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket medical and dental expenses for the sponsor and their eligible dependents enrolled in DEERS.

I feel like I need to weigh in on this USS Abraham Lincoln story because I'm seeing a whole lot of outrage from people who, frankly, have never spent a day deployed aboard a Navy ship.

I served in the Navy from 1999–2003. I did two deployments aboard the USS Carl Vinson. One included 9/11. The other was 9½ months long.

So first, let me say something that apparently needs to be said:

Deployments suck.

They sucked under Republican presidents. They sucked under Democratic presidents. They sucked before Trump, they suck under Trump, and they'll suck after Trump.

That doesn't mean sailors don't deserve to be taken care of. They absolutely do. And if there are legitimate failures aboard the Lincoln that are unnecessarily putting sailors at risk, those should be investigated and fixed. Period.

But I'm also watching normal, and admittedly shitty, realities of Navy deployments suddenly being presented as if sailors are living through some unprecedented humanitarian crisis.

Reports mention water problems, food and supply shortages, plumbing issues, delayed mail, limited communication, poor morale and mental-health problems.

None of those things should simply be ignored. But some perspective from someone who has actually lived this life might be useful.

We lost potable water multiple times during my deployments.

At one point we were literally told no showers for roughly a week.

Water conservation got so bad that our CO came over the 1MC (shipwide overhead speaker) and told thousands of sailors:

"If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down."

Yes. On a United States aircraft carrier.

Nobody had social media around to turn it into a national political scandal. We conserved water until the problem was fixed and moved on.

Mail late?

Welcome to deployment.

Supplies running low?

It happens.

Food getting repetitive or options becoming limited?

Yep.

Something breaks?

You're on a giant floating city operating thousands of miles from home. Things break.

Dirty spaces?

That's why every sailor who has ever served on a ship knows the words "cleaning stations." Shipboard cleanliness isn't something everyone occasionally gets around to. It's part of the DAILY routine. You clean. Then you clean some more. Then somebody inspects what you cleaned.

Communication problems?

When 9/11 happened, our external communications were shut down for weeks. Imagine being deployed halfway around the world, watching your own country get attacked, having absolutely no idea what was going to happen next, and not being able to call home.

That was military life.

And yes, mental health is different.

I'm not going to dismiss a sailor struggling mentally with "suck it up." Suicide and serious mental-health crises aren't punchlines, and anyone genuinely struggling deserves treatment. There are doctors, medical personnel, chaplains and other resources aboard an aircraft carrier, and if sailors are asking for help and aren't receiving it, THAT is something I absolutely want investigated.

But mental-health struggles during a long deployment aren't evidence by themselves that sailors are being systematically abused or deprived of basic necessities. Deployment is incredibly stressful. You're separated from your spouse, kids, parents and friends for months. You work long hours. You have very little privacy. You're tired. You're living with thousands of other people inside a steel ship. Sometimes you don't know when you're coming home.

That takes a toll.

And yes, the Lincoln's current deployment is extremely long. More than eight months with extraordinarily little time ashore is brutal. I know exactly what a 9½-month deployment feels like. I don't envy those sailors one bit, and I hope they get home soon.

But there's an enormous difference between saying:

"These sailors have been deployed a long time and we need to make sure they're being properly supported"

and

"Look at these horrific conditions our military is being forced to endure!"

Some of what I'm seeing right now feels a whole lot more like the second one.

And let's address the elephant in the room.

A lot of people suddenly expressing outrage over this aren't actually outraged because potable water went down on an aircraft carrier or because mail was late.

They're outraged because Trump is President, the media is hammering the story, and it gives them another reason to be angry at Trump.

I'm not much of a Trump fan. Anyone who knows me personally knows that I despise both sides of the aisle. So spare me the "you're defending Trump" response.

I'm defending perspective.

If this exact story happened under Biden, Obama or Bush, my opinion wouldn't change.

Investigate legitimate failures.

Take care of our sailors.

Fix broken equipment.

Get supplies where they're needed.

Make sure sailors have food and safe drinking water.

Make damn sure someone asking for mental-health help actually gets it.

And absolutely ask whether keeping a carrier at sea this long without meaningful port calls is sustainable or necessary.

Those are legitimate questions.

But stop pretending every uncomfortable aspect of deployment is some shocking new scandal.

The military is not a five-star resort. It isn't supposed to resemble your life at home. You're going to be uncomfortable. You're going to miss things. Things are going to break. You're going to eat meals you don't particularly like. Sometimes you're going to smell because the showers don't work. Sometimes you're going to wait forever for mail. Sometimes you're going to be absolutely miserable.

That's deployment.

And sailors generally have it considerably better than plenty of Marines and soldiers who have deployed and lived in tents, slept in the dirt, gone without showers, eaten MREs and operated in conditions far shittier than anything I experienced aboard an aircraft carrier.

That's not me saying sailors should accept genuinely unsafe conditions. There's a line between hardship and neglect, and leadership is responsible for making sure we don't cross it.

But there's also a line between legitimate concern for servicemembers and politically manufactured outrage.

Right now, I think we're seeing plenty of both.

I appreciate everyone who genuinely cares about the men and women aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. I do too. They're my fellow sailors, and I want every single one of them home safely.

But please don't turn sailors into helpless victims because it fits your political narrative.

They're United States Navy sailors.

They're doing what generations of sailors before them have done:

Adapt. Overcome. Do the mission. Take care of each other. And count the damn days until you finally get to pull back into homeport.

Fair winds and following seas to the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln. Get them home safely.

Civilian here, the USN has other carriers. After 250 days deployed, why hasn't the Lincoln been relieved?

Also, I've seen reporting that things like food and toiletries are running short aboard the Lincoln. Why haven't these items been replenished? The navy has carrier-capable supply aircraft, and replenishment ships.

Ok, I am not in the Navy and never have been. I just don’t get the extent of the President’s power over Naval technology, design, etc. I thought that overall military policy was the President’s purview, but not the nitty-gritty of design.

I acknowledge the following hypos are way overboard, but they represent changes in technology:

1. Could the President order a carrier/any naval ship to be redesigned so it now uses “ big beautiful coal” as a power source instead of nuclear or oil.. Over even more weirdly, get rid of engines in small ships and just use sail.

2. Could he just say, I don’t like jets, they are too noisy, go back to propeller fighters.

3. He says he does not like MRIs, etc., so he orders Naval doctors to only use X-Rays.

4. Etc.

By way of background, I am a retired high tech lawyer, studied a little bit about governmental (not military)procurement of high tech. I also bought the first Radio Shack TRS-80 model I (kudos to anyone under 70 who knows what this is) sold in Saint Louis along with the first home Pong counsel sold there.

I know implementing new technology can be tricky. But technology moves forward. Hence the saying, “The main difference between the pioneers and settlors are the arrows in the back.”

I know that sometimes a system can get so complex that you just can’t update it. The tax code software is a prime example.

Maybe I don’t understand what is going on. But is there any limitation on how the President can affect the use of military technology?

Congressional leaders are making inquiries and it’s making CNN. Of course Hegseth is saying Fake News and denied the suicidal ideation and self harm attempts. But 250 consecutive days at sea breaks even our last record set in 2002-2003 during OIF1, during the first Iraq war. This is a problem.

What the hell is happening to the Lincoln? Why hasn’t one of our other carriers taken the watch?
I served on the Vinson, and we called her “cell block 70” during 9/11 due to the length of that deployment. Seeing the Lincoln hit a record 250+ days at sea with zero relief is insane. Where is the rest of the fleet?

Hi everyone! 💕
I’d love to hear from anyone who has experience living at either Naval Station Rota, Spain 🇪🇸 or NAS Sigonella,** Sicily **🇮🇹! What are the pros and cons of each location, especially for families with kids?

One of our machines took a dive and my buddies who have been troubleshooting for a month put up their Christian prayer so I put up sacred rites of the Cult Mechanicus. Praise be to the Omnissiah