A distressed sailor who jumped off an aircraft carrier off the coast of Iran was having vision problems that impacted his work repairing helicopters — and his superiors didn’t care, his wife said.
In fact, they "yelled at him," the Navy serviceman’s spouse told MS NOW’s Priya Sridhar.
The unnamed 19-year-old sailor who jumped overboard and was in the water for more than an hour has become the focal point of complaints aimed at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is facing a firestorm over the excessive 9-month-long deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln.
According to MS NOW, ”Many family members are concerned about potential exhaustion, low morale and the mental health of those on board, as the aircraft carrier’s deployment at sea appears to have been extended twice during the ongoing Iran war, with no clear end in sight.”
According to the sailor’s wife, her contact has been spotty with her husband and, after he was rescued, it took the Pentagon over four days to let her know he had jumped.
She said that the young man had repeatedly gone to his superiors to express panic that he was suffering mental health issues related to the overlong deployment. According to Sridhar, he also complained that his vision was impaired to the point that he feared he’d make a mistake while repairing helicopters.
The report notes, she said her husband ”expressed concern that his prescription contact lenses had expired and that he was having trouble seeing and doing his job properly. He works on helicopters on the carrier’s flight deck, and told her he believes it had led to accidents there.”
“Every single time he would make a mistake, they would yell at him, and he would get into a lot of trouble,” the man’s wife elaborated. “He would explain to them that he can’t see because his prescription was expired, but they still allowed him to work.”