We were a bipartisan Congressional group led by Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao. Our mission was to visit the sailors of the USS Lincoln as they traveled back to their home port of San Diego after a record-breaking deployment. These sailors spent 321 days at sea, and 200 of those days without a single stop at a port of call. The original deployment was supposed to be to be for six months, with port calls roughly once a month.

Rumors have plagued this deployment: a grueling tempo of operations, inadequate food and showers, and far more suicide attempts than experienced in similar deployments. As the lead Democrat on the House Military Personnel Subcommittee, I spent months working to chase these rumors down and to get answers about the actual conditions for sailors on board. Now, I was en route to see things for myself.

We flew by Osprey helicopter from Oahu to meet the ship while she was underway. We met with support services, officers, and enlisted service members – including some from our community in PA-06. We learned about the rhythm of the record-setting deployment and the logistical and human efforts required to keep this floating city of five thousand alive and humming.

We learned what went right. And what went wrong. We were assured that real lessons had been learned and specific modifications were being made for future deployments. For the sake of our troops’ safety and security, many of these adjustments and personnel details cannot and should not be shared publicly. Suffice to say, I arrived on the ship with a lot of questions, and I came home with a lot of answers.

I came away from the experience with this:

First and foremost, we have remarkable, talented, and resilient men and women in service of this country.

Undoubtably, there is truth to some of the stories and headlines about the USS Lincoln. No servicemember should ever feel like they have been denied decent treatment. Ever. No servicemember should feel unsupported nor in despair; they should know a network is there to help them. No servicemember should ever feel like the solution is suicide. And not one family member back home should have to worry that their loved one is not being treated well.

The briefings we received while aboard and in advance of the trip also reveal important truths. Food was adequate, but perhaps not always satisfying. Showers available, but perhaps not always warm. Mental and spiritual help present, but certainly with room for improvement. A ship with 5,000 souls aboard has that many stories and that many truths.

Remarkably, we also learned that through all of the hardship, reenlistment rates after the deployment are higher for the USS Lincoln compared to others – but even this, we learned, is not a complete story.

These sailors and others in uniform like them volunteered and swore an oath to the Constitution. They swore to defend it and to defend us. They did this knowing that they could be placed in harm’s way, that they could be sent to a war at any moment, that their service was never guaranteed to be safe or easy.

But the problem here is bigger than the USS Lincoln. It’s bigger than the stressors our troops face in times of war. The problem is that we are at war at all.

And the real question is whether this war, which put the USS Lincoln at sea for so long, is a justified or necessary one. Whether the American people have authorized the deployment of our soldiers and sailors, airmen and marines in this way. Whether Congress, as the people’s proxy, has exercised our oversight and budgetary authority over this war and over the Department of Defense. My answer to these questions is no.

It is indeed not just raining, and the tempest brought upon us by President Trump and his Administration is not passing. In fact, the danger is even more real now, as President Trump has once again walked away from the negotiating table with Iran and once again threatened more violence. This storm is barreling down on our fine young men and women on the Lincoln and on those who will follow them out to sea, land, air, and space on future deployments.

But despite the winds and rain we flew through this weekend, our C-40 and Osprey landed safely and our mission was completed. The sailors aboard the USS Lincoln are headed home at last. And soon, I believe Americans will use our collective voice to stop this President’s storm.