US naval blockade: What’s on the menu for sailors, Marines onboard warships; new pictures surface

Families of US service members deployed on warships in the Middle East say their loved ones are going hungry, with limited food supplies and poor-quality meals aboard vessels enforcing the US naval blockade of Iranian ports.Photographs shared by service members aboard the USS Tripoli and USS Abraham Lincoln, obtained by USA Today, show meager portions: a lunch tray carrying one small scoop of shredded meat and a single folded tortilla; a dinner plate with a handful of boiled carrots, a dry meat patty and a gray slab of processed meat.“The food is tasteless and there’s not nearly enough, and they’re hungry all the time,” said Karen Erskine-Valentine, a West Virginia pastor who has been sending care packages to a sailor aboard the Abraham Lincoln. “That kind of breaks your heart.”Dan F., whose daughter is a Marine aboard the USS Tripoli, said she told him in sporadic messages that fresh produce was no longer available and that crew members were rationing supplies. A coffee machine on board broke down; Dan said he stopped drinking coffee in solidarity.“We have the strongest military in the world,” Dan, a 63-year-old former Marine who asked to be identified only by his first name to protect his daughter from retaliation, told USA Today. “You shouldn’t be running out of food. The one thing we had over our adversaries [was] we fed our people.”A sailor aboard the Tripoli wrote to his family that crew members “eat when they can” and divide portions evenly when one person receives more than others. “Supplies are going to get really low,” he wrote on March 11. “Morale is going to be at an all-time low.”

Mail suspension blocks care packages

Efforts by families and community groups to send food, hygiene products and other essentials have been stymied by an indefinite suspension of mail delivery to 27 military ZIP codes across the Middle East.The US Postal Service halted deliveries at the beginning of April citing “airspace closures and other logistical impacts from the ongoing conflict,” according to Army Major Travis Shaw, a spokesperson. The suspension remains “in effect until further notice,” Shaw said.Mail already in transit is being held at secure Postal Service or military facilities “for future delivery once service resumes,” he added. No mail is being returned to senders.“The resumption of mail service is contingent upon the reopening of airspace by civil authorities, and the area commander’s evaluation of regional transportation and distribution stability,” Shaw said.A Texas mother whose son, a Navy sailor, is aboard the Tripoli told USA Today she has spent at least $2,000 on care packages. None have reached her son.Karen Turgeon, organizer of an annual Thanksgiving care package drive in Monson, Massachusetts, rushed to organize an extra drive for four service members from her community sent to the Middle East. None of the packages have arrived. Her group has instead redirected its efforts to sending cards and flowers to the families of deployed service members.Dawn Penrod, treasurer of an American Legion Auxiliary chapter in Edgewater, Maryland, said she spent an hour at the post office trying to send a care package to her nephew, an Army Reserve member stationed in Bahrain. A postal worker told her she could not send anything to the military address. The package now sits in her living room.“They were delivering mail and packages all the time,” Penrod said of previous deployments. “I just don’t know why they can’t now.”

Extended deployments strain crews

The USS Tripoli has been at sea for more than a month since leaving its home port in Japan to join the Iran war. The 3,500 sailors and Marines aboard the Tripoli and its two accompanying warships are now tasked with enforcing the US blockade of ships leaving Iranian ports, according to US Central Command.The USS Abraham Lincoln has been deployed even longer. On April 15, the USS Gerald Ford broke the record for the longest deployment of any aircraft carrier since the Cold War — 295 days at sea. The carrier retreated to Naval Support Activity Souda Bay on the island of Crete for maintenance on March 23 after a laundry fire and plumbing problems.

No end in sight

The Army said there is no end date in sight for the mail suspension, despite a ceasefire in the Iran war. USPS spokesperson David Coleman said temporary suspensions can be monitored on the postal service’s website.“We’re trying to cheer them up at home,” Turgeon said. “We give them an envelope filled with things to send so that when they can, they will.”