The commanding officer of the George Washington told his crew on Thursday that the Navy will begin to remove sailors from the aircraft carrier following a string of suicides and complaints from service members about the conditions aboard the ship.
According to a recording of the announcement reviewed by Military.com, the ship will move 260 sailors to an offsite barracks-type living arrangement on Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth on Monday.
Gaut said that they would be able to expand that number at about 50 additional beds per week.
The GAO found that troops at remote and overseas bases attempt suicide more often.
The Navy confirmed the plan when asked by Military.com, but they added that the moves will continue until all sailors move off-ship.
At the end of a month that saw three sailors die by suicide, the Navy moved to address the problem.
Military.com has been able to confirm at least five suicides by sailors assigned to the ship in the last 10 months, and the Navy has disputed the cause of death for one of those sailors.
The April 22 visit to the ship by the Navy's top enlisted official, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Russell Smith, in which the crew was told the service is powerless to improve conditions, followed.
Smith told a sailor that the Navy probably could have done better to manage his expectations, before telling the crew that raising concerns should be done with reasonable expectations.
He said that sleeping in a foxhole is not what you are doing.
The commanding officer said that the ship has 422 sailors living on it. Sailors living on board a ship in a shipyard tend to be the most junior crew members since they don't receive an allowance for housing until the E-5 rank.
Gaut said that the development was the result of his team&s focus on improving the crew's quality of life, mental health and morale.
Sailors will still have to sleep on the ship when they are on duty, as a Navy practice in which a portion of the crew remains aboard the ship overnight to be ready to respond to emergencies, according to the captain. If sailors choose to live aboard, they will be able to.
Gaut said that this arrangement will end about four months before the ship leaves the shipyard, before giving the crew a date that delays the delivery of the carrier. Military.com was asked not to publish the specific date by the Navy.
The ship has been delayed at least three times since it arrived at Newport News. The ship was supposed to be done in 2021, but it was changed to 2022.
The work on this ship is nearing completion and the shipbuilding team is laser focused on redelivering a fully recapitalized carrier to the fleet as early as possible.
The news comes as details about who has died aboard the aircraft carrier and how are slowly coming to light amid mixed messages reported by the crew.
Gaut told the crew on April 11 that the ship had had nine suicides in nine months. Gaut told the crew that the death on April 15 was a suicide. The Navy hasn't said if Gaut relayed those numbers to the crew.
When Military.com reached out to the Navy, they said that there had been seven deaths on the ship in the last year.
Military.com was referred to local law enforcement for the cause of death by the Navy.
The three April deaths were suicides, while the other four deaths were health-related deaths and an unexplained death.
The Navy said there were three more suicides in November.
The official count of deaths in 12 months was seven with four suicides. Again, no names were given.
Military.com was able to identify some of the other sailors who have died aboard the George Washington in the last nine months by speaking with crew members and listening to other recordings of Gaut addressing the ship.
The Virginia Office of the Medical Examiner ruled the death of a sailor in July to be a suicide, according to documents provided via email.
According to the sailors who spoke with Military.com, Gaut told his crew that the ship had experienced three suicides and three additional deaths in nine months, which was not true.
The George Washington has experienced a number of suicides that have not been seen in recent years.
While the Navy is a resilient force, we are not immune from the same challenges that affect the nation that we serve, according to a statement this week by the commander of Naval Air Force Atlantic.
He said that he and his staff were working hard to make sure that support and resources were available to sailors in the shipyards, at sea, and at home.
If you or someone you know needs help, the Veterans Crisis Hotline is open seven days a week. Services can be accessed online at www.veteranscrisisline.net or by text.
The person can be reached at Konstantin.toropin@military.com. You can follow him on the social networking site.
The Navy is deputizing doctors to enforce drug rules for people with mental health issues.
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