After a string of deaths over the past year, including the three suicides that happened last month alone, the Navy decided to allow the sailors to move off the aircraft carrier USS George Washington and live at a local installation.
Naval Air Force Atlantic spokesperson, Lt. Cmdr. Rob Myers, announced the decision of the USS George Washington’s commanding officer Capt. Brent Gaut to provide an opportunity to every sailor who is currently living on the ship to choose to move to off-ship accommodations at a local installation.
Currently docked in Newport News, Va, George Washington is going through a midlife refueling and complex overhaul, which has been ongoing since 2017.
Gaut has made the decision last Thursday and the moving process has started on Monday. He informed that 260 of the 422 sailors of the ship will move to an offsite barracks-type living arrangement at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth.
The move will continue until all sailors living onboard the ship – whose projected departure from the shipyards has been pushed back once again- who wish to move off-ship have done so.
All sailors, regardless of pay grade, will be granted the option to move off the ship and the Navy also scheduled additional buses to transport them from the ship to their temporary accommodations.
A certain number of sailors, however, will have to stay on the ship to provide ship security, provide essential services to the crew, maintain fire and flooding watches, and run essential equipment.
The change comes after a string of complaints about conditions aboard the ship and suicides of seven service members assigned to the George Washington, including three apparent suicides in mid-April. Another three of its sailors killed themselves between November 2019 and October 2020.
That has raised a serious alarm, so the Navy has also provided tele-mental health services through network providers and other steps to address the mental health of sailors on the ship.
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