Author: Geng Zhige
Speaking of US warships, especially US aircraft carriers, it is estimated that many people immediately think of "powerful" and "domineering". After all, as the world's most powerful military force and the country with the largest military expenditure, the aircraft carrier is not only an important weapon for the United States to maintain its global hegemony, but also one of the symbols of its hegemonism in the eyes of many people.
However, for many U.S. naval soldiers currently living on the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier "George Washington", this aircraft carrier, which has appeared many times near the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, is not a powerful symbol of the United States to deter China, but a living hell on earth...
This alarming situation was exposed by the recent spate of soldier deaths and suicides on board the George Washington. Public information shows that the US aircraft carrier has killed 7 soldiers in the past 1 year, and in April this year alone, 3 people committed suicide in just one week.
On May 6, local time, CNN disclosed in detail the causes of the death and suicide of these soldiers in an in-depth report. Many of the soldiers aboard the George Washington, interviewed by CNN, said it was mainly related to the carrier's extremely poor living conditions, and the soldiers not only had difficulty resting, but also had difficulty eating.
It is worth mentioning that the vast majority of these soldiers are young people and have chosen to remain anonymous, for fear that disclosing these information will expose them to retaliation and affect their future.
According to the disclosures of these soldiers, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier "George Washington", which was launched in 1990, although it has begun to carry out overhaul work in the shipyard as early as 2017, the work that should have ended in 2021 has been delayed to 2023 due to the delay in the completion of the epidemic and other factors.
However, the military asked the soldiers to return to the ship while the aircraft carrier repair work was still in progress. This directly led to a lot of noise, odor, and fog generated by the ongoing maintenance work, making it impossible for the soldiers to rest. At the same time, other inconveniences caused by the construction, such as continuous power outages, lack of hot water, lack of heating and food supply problems, made the soldiers' emotions more and more depressed.
The father of a soldier who committed suicide on April 15 told CNN that his children had complained about the poor living conditions aboard the George Washington, the noise from the construction at night that made people unable to sleep, and the fog and odor caused by the construction during the day that his children had to hide in their cars for a while.
Screenshot from CNN's report
Other soldiers also said that there was "basically no quiet place to sleep" on the ship, which looked like a large construction site. Some people also said that because there is no heating on the ship, sleeping in the cabin at night will be frozen awake, and it is better to sleep in their own car.
Also intolerable to the soldiers was the problem of food supply. Several soldiers complained to CNN that there was often a shortage of food supplies on board the ship, and it was difficult to eat a proper meal. Some soldiers even complained, "Even the prisoners [in the prison] eat better than we do in the army."
However, the top brass of the US military gave a different statement from the soldiers. Robert Myers, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet Aviation Command, said that before allowing soldiers to move back to the ship, military and relevant officials had personally inspected the living area of the warship, and there were also special people on the ship who conducted daily food assessments to ensure the quality of food. He also said the management of the George Washington had been "doing everything in its power" to address these issues for the soldiers.
The soldiers, who spoke to CNN anonymously, said that although they had been reflecting the situation on the ship through some public channels, the complaints and suggestions had not been answered, and they could only continue to suffer in silence these bad conditions.
What made the soldiers even more ridiculous and "offended" was that two weeks ago, Russell Smith, the chief sergeant major of the U.S. Navy, came to the ship and said that he had come to "talk to the soldiers" about it. But the soldiers said that he had actually come to PUA everyone, saying that there should be "rational expectations" of life on the ship, and that their conditions were much better than those of the Marines sleeping in the scattered pits.
The soldiers said they thought Smith's words were excessive because the ship's problems could be solved, and they were not stationed in Afghanistan, but in the United States.
It wasn't until earlier this week that the military began agreeing to move about half of the more than 400 soldiers living on board to temporary accommodation on land. The move was also welcomed by the ship's soldiers, who thought it was the right move. CNN also did not forget to give the military a step down at the end of the report, quoting soldiers who were happy to see this change as saying that they believed everything would get better.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that on March 28 this year, the US White House officially announced the US defense budget for fiscal year 2023, which is a staggering $813.3 billion, which not only set a record high, but also far exceeded any other country in the world.