All posts tagged "navy"

Black war hero's family decries Trump's 'shock' move they weren't told about

A Black war hero's family denounced President Donald Trump's reported move to rename the USS Doris Miller.

On Thursday, CNN revealed that the Navy is taking steps to rename the USS Doris Miller, an aircraft carrier that's still being built, and has already stopped referring to it by the name meant to honor the Pearl Harbor hero.

Doris Miller is known for his response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and was portrayed in the 2001 movie "Pearl Harbor" by Cuba Gooding Jr. The reported renaming comes as Trump has dismissed the dismal conditions of sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and ordered the USS Doris Miller to rip out its electromagnetic catapults in favor of steam-powered systems.

On Thursday night, CNN anchor Laura Coates spoke to Thomas Bledsoe, the great-nephew of Doris Miller. Bledsoe relayed the reaction and concerns from Miller's descendants and surviving family.

"For our family, it was quite a shock to hear that there was conversation about the possibility of renaming the Doris Miller carrier," Bledsoe said. "Not only was it a shock, but it was also a shock that we found out from a news outlet, comparably from the Navy."

Finding out "caused a lot of concerns and uncertainty," Bledsoe said. CNN reported that the Navy is considering awarding Miller the Medal of Honor, the highest honor in the military, and renaming another ship after him, but Bledsoe said his family was concerned about the "timing" of those decisions.

Coates asked him what he would say to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Bledsoe said, "I would really want someone to take the time to realize the true impact of changing the name and what it would do to society."

He added, "Doris Miller stands for so much about America and who we are today."

Outrage as Trump's name slated to replace Black war hero on aircraft carrier: 'Egregious'

The Navy is weighing whether to put President Donald Trump's name on an aircraft carrier currently named after Doris Miller.

CNN reported the possible switch on Thursday, noting that the Navy has effectively stopped internally referring to the ship as the USS Doris Miller. The effort to rename the USS Doris Miller has been underway since earlier this year, an anonymous source told CNN.

"Who could possibly be surprised that Donald Trump thinks that he's more befitting an honor like this than a World War II and American war hero?" Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) said during a CNN interview on Thursday. "Doris Miller, this is a man. Donald Trump is a five-time draft dodger. He's called veterans suckers and losers. He refused to go to an American military cemetery in Europe because it was raining."

Miller is known for his actions during the attack on Pearl Harbor, CNN noted. A Thursday segment with Jake Tapper pointed out that he was depicted in the 2001 movie "Pearl Harbor" because of his effort to defend U.S. forces from Japan's attack.

CNN noted that it's unclear when the Navy plans to change the carrier's name. Two anonymous sources told CNN that the Navy has had internal conversations about renaming it to honor Trump. CNN described it as an "unprecedented move" because an aircraft carrier has never been named after a sitting president.

"I really hope this is not true," Crow said. "My hopes are repeatedly dashed under the Trump administration, so it probably is. And we'll fight it like we do many of the other egregious things they do."

Trump recently ordered the USS Doris Miller to rip out its electromagnetic catapults and replace them with steam-powered systems, which is expected to cost billions of dollars.

The Navy is looking to rename another warship after Miller, according to one source who spoke to CNN. It's also planning to recommend Miller for the Medal of Honor, the highest decoration for military valor.

Another battleship disaster hits Navy as Trump denies troubling conditions: report

Another fiasco has struck a Navy warship as a guided-missile destroyer lost power for four days in the middle of one of the most tense maritime zones on Earth while President Donald Trump has downplayed worrisome conditions for sailors serving at sea, according to reports on Monday.

Military service members aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold spent four grueling days without working toilets, potable water, hot meals and air conditioning as the ship baked in the brutal South China Sea heat after a total power failure, The Daily Beast reported.

The warship, which was built 30 years ago to shoot down enemy aircraft, sink enemy ships and hit targets on land, was in the middle of standard patrols in the Indo-Pacific when its generators gave out, Navy Cdr. Matthew Comer, a spokesperson for the 7th Fleet, told CNN.

"There were no injuries to the crew, who demonstrated resilience, grit, professionalism, and unwavering steadiness in their response," Comer said.

The power outage has remained under investigation.

Former Navy captain Carl Schuster told CNN about his experience on a destroyer that lost power near Puerto Rico, which went dead in the water for about four hours. He explained what conditions would have been like for the crew on the USS Benfold.

"It would have been quite stressed. Operations officers were worried about crew morale and operational concerns, the engineers were focused on how to solve it, and the navigator was worried about the direction they were drifting and what weather was coming," Schuster said.

"I can assure you four hours in the waters southeast of Puerto Rico is not nearly as stressful as four days in the South China Sea," Schuster explained.

Beijing claims vast stretches of those waters as its own — a claim Washington rejects.

The Navy reportedly scrambled to keep its crew fed, sending the guided-missile cruiser USS Robert Smalls to deliver hot meals while other vessels from the Japan-based USS George Washington Carrier Strike Group pitched in to help, according to The Beast. Eventually, the crippled destroyer had to be towed to the Philippines, where repairs weren't finished until Aug. 8.

This isn't the only disaster to hit a Navy warship. It's the second Pacific Command destroyer this year to go dark. In May, the USS Higgins lost power and propulsion for hours in the Indo-Pacific after what the Navy vaguely described as an "engineering casualty" in its electrical system.

Rage erupts as Trump's 'foolish whims' hit Navy with another 'extraordinary' cost

The Navy is looking at a "major redesign" of its new aircraft carriers because President Donald Trump disagrees with their "looks."

According to a Saturday report by the Washington Post, the Navy is considering the feasibility of moving a multistory tower that acts as a command center for aircraft carriers.

The report comes after the Wall Street Journal revealed that Trump ordered future aircraft carriers to move from electromagnetic catapults to steam-powered ones and amid the nine-month deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln, where sailors have jumped overboard and attempted suicide as conditions continue to deteriorate.

The command center, also known as an aircraft carrier's island, helps jets launch off of a ship's flight deck, according to the Washington Post. The Navy already examined the idea of moving islands on future aircraft carriers during the first Trump term and found that moving them could cost billions of dollars and cause significant delays, a former senior U.S. official told The Post.

"It came back that the cost and time to do so would just be extraordinary," the former official said. Bryan Clark, a former Navy officer now working at the Hudson Institute, agreed that relocating the island would be "a major redesign" that could affect the carriers' buoyancy and weight, he told The Post.

Trump's desire for the move stems from his preference for aircraft carriers to look more like ships that were in service during World War II, current and former officials told The Post.

The move would affect carriers in the Ford-class, a line of ships that are in various stages of development, according to The Post. The same class of carriers is affected by Trump's order to rip out electromagnetic catapult systems. The Navy is currently planning to build up to 10 Ford-class carriers over the next four decades at a projected future cost of $22 billion each.

The Post's report prompted renewed outcry over Trump's handling of the military.

"The design is under review in part because Trump thinks the boat doesn’t look retro enough," said political commentator Mario Nawfal.

Political analyst Bill Kristol described the Trump administration as "wasting billions on catering to Trump's foolish whims about weapons. But [he] can't go to a little extra trouble to take care of our service members."

Former GOP congressman and veteran Adam Kinzinger reacted to the news by describing Trump as "an absolute buffoon."

Trump's new 'highly unusual' demands add strain to Navy already 'under the gun': report

President Donald Trump is making matters worse for already embattled Navy sailors with his latest demand for steam catapults, per Politico.

According to reporting on Friday, Trump's costly order for aircraft carriers to ditch their electromagnetic catapults for steam-powered systems is "compounding" pressures as the Navy deals with poor conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln.

"The Navy is really coming under the gun now," a U.S. official told Politico. "We have ships pushing their limits in the Middle East and the Caribbean with no end in sight."

On Friday, Trump brushed off concerns from sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln, where sailors have reportedly been jumping overboard and attempting suicide. He said that their nine-month deployment has been "not nearly long enough." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth similarly downplayed the concerns, saying, "Some deployments are longer than others."

Trump and Hegseth "both owe these sailors and their families an apology," Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), the Senate Democrats' top defense appropriator, told Politico. "If they can't take care of the troops under their watch, they should step aside for leaders who can."

Trump's demand to switch the catapult systems on future aircraft carriers to steam threatens to put the Navy under more financial and logistical strain, as a government report estimated that the new battleships are already expected to cost billions more than anticipated, Politico reported.

The modifications ordered by Trump are "highly unusual and disruptive for the Navy," Todd Harrison, an Air Force veteran and longtime defense budget analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, told Politico. "Especially since these are changes the Navy did not request."

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said on Friday that the USS Abraham Lincoln would return to port, but he agreed, "There is no question our young men and women have been pushed to their limits," adding, "But they have never broken."

Senator reveals the comfort 'worth its weight in gold' trapped sailors are being denied

CNN anchor Erin Burnett called the conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln "shocking" during a live broadcast on Thursday as new details emerged about dire troop morale.

Burnett spoke with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who sits on the Armed Services Committee. The lawmaker wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asking for information about the troops on naval ships and pushed back on Hegseth's claims.

"Hegseth trying to characterize these powerful, credible reports as fake news is really a disservice and profoundly disrespectful to the sailors who are on the USS Abraham Lincoln and enduring these hardships," Blumenthal said.

He explained how the lack of supplies, access to food, hot water, toothpaste and soap affects morale and increases stress, which he said contributed to a sailor reportedly going overboard.

"Anyone who's familiar with how an aircraft carrier operates knows that these jobs are highly stressful, requiring stamina as these fighter jets land on an area that looks like a postage stamp as they begin their descent," Blumenthal said. "And these sailors, whether they are on the deck or below, doing mechanics or at the surveillance systems, fending off possible attacks, are all under tremendous stress and doing work that can be highly dangerous if they are either distracted or demoralized. So it's a real strategic issue."

Reports indicated Thursday that the USS Washington was on its way to replace or relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been at sea for a record 200-plus days without a port call — they haven't touched ground since the ship deployed from San Diego in November 2025.

But that still doesn't solve the problem, Blumenthal explained.

"The USS Washington is being taken away from its forward position in the far east. So the endless war of impulse without strategy and exit plan is having a toll on our military readiness," he added.

Burnett pointed out why this was problematic.

"When you hear this as an American and Americans rightly have pride in the greatest military in the world, but to hear that you have a premier military ship like this, right, a carrier where people aren't getting enough food, I think it's stunning," Burnett said. "It's hard to hear. And it's frankly shocking. And the conditions on the Lincoln appear to be in no small part because of the war with Iran."

Blumenthal described another disturbing report: sailors have not been receiving their care packages.

"Anybody who's had sons or daughters in the military, I've had two, knows that a stale cookie can be worth its weight in gold," he said. "That kind of destructive impact to morale can have a ripple effect in the crew."

Trump's billion-dollar order to rip out new Navy tech hands enemies a gift: WSJ

President Donald Trump ordered the Navy to rip out the electromagnetic launch systems on its newest aircraft carriers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The move will force the Navy to revert to steam catapults, and the reversal is expected to cost billions, The Journal reported. Trump signed a national security memorandum on Thursday directing the change, U.S. officials told The Journal.

The order would involve removing the electromagnetic catapult systems used by ships in the Gerald R. Ford class of Navy aircraft carriers. It keeps the electric systems on three carriers already being built but forces a switch back to steam on the future USS Doris Miller and every carrier after it.

For nearly a decade, Trump has been airing a grievance about electric systems on ships. In a 2017 interview with Time, he said he told the Navy to go back to "godd— steam" after a sailor praised the older system during a ship visit in his first term.

He has kept up the criticism since, according to The Journal. The electromagnetic catapults are "not nearly as good, too complex," Trump said last month at a Pennsylvania conference.

The White House framed the reversal as a return to proven hardware. The decision "will result in carriers that are enabled by battle-tested steam and hydraulic systems," it said in a statement to The Journal. The statement added that the shift would "reactivate portions of the maritime industrial base that are easier to scale."

General Atomics, which builds the electromagnetic system, pushed back, however. The decision "warrants careful reconsideration," the company told The Journal, and warned that changing course now "would introduce significant cost, schedule, and integration risks" with its USS Doris Miller work nearly half finished.

The company also cautioned that the move could benefit rivals by "potentially creating opportunities for adversaries to close the capability gap," per The Journal.

Defense analysts questioned the logic of the cost. Bryan Clark, a naval expert with the Hudson Institute, told The Journal, "Electric is more reliable," and pointed to early Navy data that shows the old steam carriers that Trump prefers cost about $100 million a year more to operate than the new electric Ford-class carriers.

Trump's 'stymied' standoff backfires as key ally left dangerously exposed: report

A key U.S. ally is now dangerously exposed after months of President Donald Trump's "stymied" standoff, according to a new report.

A top U.S. general in Europe privately warned the Pentagon that he lacks enough naval forces to protect Israel from the looming threat of ballistic missiles, according to reporting by The Washington Post.

The warning comes as Trump's naval blockade of Iranian ports in response to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz uses up Navy destroyers.

"Being on a wartime footing is going to take a toll in terms of readiness and munitions inventory levels," Tom Karako, the director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The Post. "Now the question is: What's the strategy here?"

General Alexus Grynkewich, the head of U.S. European Command, said in a written notification to senior Pentagon officials that he'll be forced to choose between defending the U.S. homeland or Israel if he doesn't get another Navy destroyer, according to The Post.

U.S. naval destroyers have radar equipment and are armed with missiles that have been used to down missiles shot at Israel by Iran and Houthi militants in Yemen, The Post noted.

However, Trump's blockade of Iranian ports has strained Navy resources needed to maintain its destroyers, according to The Post.

General Grynkewich and U.S. European Command are tasked with protecting the U.S. from the threat of Russian ballistic missiles. They also have to keep forces ready in case of a Russian incursion into NATO territory, according to The Post.

Navy searches for missing crew member after helicopter makes emergency Arabian Sea landing

The U.S. Navy was searching for a missing crew member after a helicopter made an emergency landing in the Arabian Sea, CNN reported on Wednesday.

Three of the four crew members were reportedly rescued, and searchers were trying to find one more person, according to CNN.

U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. 5th Fleet shared the following information in a post on X.

"On July 1 at 3:30 a.m. ET, the aircrew of an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) conducted an emergency water landing in the Arabian Sea. There is no indication that the emergency was caused by hostile action. Three of the helicopter’s four crew members have been recovered and are in stable condition aboard George H. W. Bush. U.S. Navy assets in the region are currently searching for other aircrewmen still missing. The cause of [the] incident is under investigation."

Additional details around the search are developing.

On July 1 at 3:30 a.m. ET, the aircrew of an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) conducted an emergency water landing in the Arabian Sea. There is no indication the emergency was caused by hostile action. Three of the helicopter’s four crew…
— U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. 5th Fleet (@US5thFleet) July 1, 2026

'Cringe level is off the charts': Hegseth mocked over motivational speech to Navy sailors

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was criticized Friday after giving what was intended as a motivational speech to a group of Navy sailors.

Hegseth joined the military personnel for a workout drill on USS Boxer, which is docked in Singapore, when he stopped to give a pep talk about the ongoing Iran war.

“The president said 'Iran can either do it the right way, with a deal across the table, or they can deal with my guy on the left.' That happened to be me. But it's not me. It's you guys!” Hegseth said.

People online mocked Hegseth's message to the group.

"The cringe level is off the charts," journalist Aaron Rupar, who has 1.1 million followers, wrote on X.

"Hegseth is an actor playing a Secdef in a cheesy movie," former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), a frequent Trump administration critic and veteran, wrote on X.

"Pete Hegseth got how many of our fellow Americans killed and injured and how many bases destroyed all because he used GROK to plan a war with Iran and then got America's A-- handed to her?" Pastor Ben Dixon, a political commentator with more than 164,000 followers, wrote on X.

"This is so ... stupid!" Gwilym Eades, a lecturer in human and environmental geography at Royal Holloway University of London, wrote on Bluesky.

the cringe level is off the charts https://t.co/SvhS7oolvs
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 29, 2026