Former Navy fighter pilot Matthew "Whiz" Buckley knows firsthand the challenges of spending months at sea aboard an aircraft carrier.
The ship he once served on, the USS Abraham Lincoln, has now been at sea for more than 250 days in support of the war with Iran, with some service members voicing concerns about conditions aboard the ship.
Buckley acknowledged that spending that much time aboard a warship is difficult, but said those conditions come with serving aboard an aircraft carrier.
"This isn't the Oasis of the Seas. This is a warship," Buckley told Scripps News.
"You know what concerned me? When my sailors stopped complaining," Buckley added.
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The USS George Washington is heading to the region to relieve the Lincoln, but there is no timeline yet for when the service members can return home.
The concerns about life aboard the Lincoln come as President Donald Trump is pushing another major change for the Navy's aircraft carrier fleet: replacing electromagnetic aircraft launch systems aboard its newest carriers with traditional steam-powered catapults.
Trump has criticized the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, known as EMALS, since at least 2017 and has repeatedly said he prefers steam catapults.
The proposed change could cost billions of dollars and require significant modifications to the Navy's newest aircraft carriers.
Buckley, however, believes Trump has a point.
"New technology isn't always better," he said. "We've been using steam catapults to throw aircraft off the pointy end of an aircraft carrier for nearly 100 years."
Buckley, who said he completed hundreds of carrier takeoffs and landings, argued that reliability should take precedence over having the newest technology.
"This shouldn't be a partisan issue when we're talking about defending our country," Buckley said. "Why don't we defer to the men and women on board these ships that know exactly what they're doing?"
