Among a fleet of more than 342,000 active sailors, there were 157 new Navy deserters in 2021, compared with 63 in 2019 and 98 in 2020, Navy data shows.
'No easy option'Of the 152 Navy deserters who were still at large as of May 9, the Navy said, two are from the USS George Washington.
In the last year, at least five George Washington sailors have died by suicide, three of them within a week last month, military officials said.
The USS George Washington during its mission in the eastern Mediterranean Sea in 2017.
USS George H.W.