KIMBERLY, Wis. — Alicia Saunders, candidate for Wisconsin’s 2nd Assembly District and a U.S. Navy veteran who served aboard the USS Harry S. Truman during Operation Iraqi Freedom, issued the following statement regarding reports about conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and criticism directed at sailors reportedly experiencing mental health crises:

“I’m not going to sit here and speculate about exactly what is happening aboard the Abraham Lincoln when we don’t have all the facts.

Some of what is being reported may turn out to be exactly as serious as it sounds. Some of it may be missing context or getting blown out of proportion as information passes from sailors, to families, to the media, to social media. And some of it may simply sound shocking to people who have never experienced life aboard an aircraft carrier.

Carrier life is hard. Incredibly hard.

There are things considered relatively normal aboard a carrier that sound absolutely alarming to civilians. Equipment breaks. Heads (bathrooms) and showers go out of service. Food can be terrible. Supplies can run low between replenishments. Twelve-hour days and seven-day workweeks underway aren’t unusual. Serious injuries can and do happen on the flight deck. There is a reason the flight deck of an aircraft carrier has been dubbed ‘the most dangerous four-and-a-half acres in the world.’

That doesn’t mean those conditions are good or that we should simply accept them. It means the baseline for life aboard an aircraft carrier is already incredibly difficult.

Until there is clearer, verified information about exactly what is happening aboard the Lincoln, I’m not going to turn rumors or incomplete information into political ammunition.

But there is one part of this story I will address without hesitation.

I’ve seen people calling sailors who have reportedly attempted suicide ‘weak.’

No. Absolutely not.

I worked on the flight deck aboard the Harry S. Truman. When you’re underway, there are no weekends. You’re running watches, working flight operations, doing scrubbers and sweepers (daily cleaning), eating, sleeping and doing it all over again. You crawl into a rack (bed) barely bigger than a coffin, get whatever sleep you can and start another day surrounded by steel and ocean.

I can tell you from experience: after enough time at sea, that water can start looking really inviting.

We got stir-crazy after weeks between port calls. The sailors aboard the Lincoln have been doing this for months with almost no meaningful break from that environment.

Suicide watches aren’t something that suddenly appeared aboard the Lincoln, either. I remember sailors being placed on suicide watch during my own time in the Navy, both deployed and at home.

None of that makes what is happening now less serious.

Do not call these sailors weak.

You have no idea what somebody has been carrying by the time they reach that point. You have no idea what months of exhaustion, isolation, stress, noise, danger, lack of privacy and being unable to simply walk away can do to a person.

Needing help isn’t weakness. Reaching a breaking point isn’t cowardice.

Those sailors don’t need strangers sitting comfortably on land judging them.

They need to come home.”

Saunders served in the United States Navy from 2002 to 2006, including aboard the USS Harry S. Truman in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. She served as an undesignated airman before becoming an Aviation Support Equipment Technician and remains active in leadership within the veteran community.

Saunders is the Democratic candidate for Wisconsin’s 2nd Assembly District.