The carrier strike group now centered on the Ronald Reagan was previously led by the George Washington from 2008 to 2015. The carrier’s scheduled four-year refit began in 2017 but was significantly delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and other setbacks.
they have been sitting on their hands and more americans die every day as a result. reporter: 519 service members died by suicide in 2021, latest year for which numbers are available, a slight decrease from the previous year s 582, but any amount of deaths by suicide is too many. last year three sailors assigned to the uss george washington died by suicide in a single week. and four at a facility in norfolk died in a month. it doesn t require anymore legislation, it just requires the secretary of defense and his department to do their job. reporter: cnn has reached out to the pentagon about the delay. last month the pept gntagon sui prevention review committee unveiled 127 recommendations to combat military suicides. even one suicide is too many and we will exhaust every effort to promote the wellness, health and morale of our total force.