Things are tense on board the USS Shiloh warship with morale at an all-time low, according to surveys obtained by The Navy Times.
One sailor described the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser, which is based in Yokosuka, Japan, as a "floating prison" while another crew member said it was "only a matter of time before something horrible happens," the documents revealed.
These remarks drive home what leaders on the Navy’s 7th Fleet have said all along — that sailors are overworked and under trained.
"It feels like a race to see which will break down first, the ship or its crew," one respondent of the survey said, per The Navy Times.
Two Navy officials confirmed to CNN that the information emerging from the surveys was an accurate description to life on the Shiloh.
The pacific command’s mission is to deter North Korea but members on board the vessel are concerned about how the crew’s compromised morale would affect this.
"I just pray we never have to shoot down a missile from North Korea," a distraught sailor said, "because then our ineffectiveness will really show."
The results of the three command climate surveys were established during the command of Capt. Adam M. Aycock, who is now at the US Naval War College.
One Navy official could not explain how Aycock had retained his command from June 2015 to August 2017 amid such poor survey results, CNN reported.
The emergence of these reports is the latest in a string of negative publicity involving the Shiloh, including an incident in which a sailor was found on the ship after reported missing for a week and assumed to have gone overboard.
This has fueled concerns among officials.
"The Navy definitely has a perception problem, and the 7th Fleet in particular," Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the U.S. Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center, told CNN.
"Those issues could worry U.S. allies who rely on Aegis-equipped ships for missile defense -- What if states like Japan and South Korea start doubting the 7th Fleet's ability to shield them from a North Korean attack?"
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