New Delhi, Aug. 13 -- WASHINGTON - The families call it the disappearance. Phone calls stop coming. Letters arrive in batches, delayed by weeks, then not at all. For the 5,000 sailors and Marines deployed on the USS Abraham Lincoln, a nuclear-powered carrier that departed San Diego on November 21, 2025, and has not made a substantive port call since, the weight of nine months at sea has become something the Navy officially denies while families and lawmakers say it is breaking people in real time.

Two Democratic senators went to the Pentagon on Thursday with a formal demand for answers. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, citing reports of water con...