Subtle Threats to US Combat Readiness Include Health Care Access on Overseas Bases

The USS George Washington (CVN-73), here with components of its airwing on deployment off North Korea, incurred seven suicides between April 2021 and April 2022, not while the ship was at sea but while it was in Newport News, Va., undergoing an overhaul that forced its crew to live in “inhumane” industrial and toxic conditions. Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Charles Oki/U.S. Navy via Getty Images

An army may march on its stomach, but deployed soldiers will stay focused in the field when they know their families are being cared for at home.

When it comes to the front-line warfighters stationed on forward-deployed U.S. military bases and ships, concerns about financial and family health issues can be a subtle, but systemic, threat to force readiness.