USS Abraham Lincoln returns; Heat wave in prison; New morning anchor, Katie Anastas

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Hey there, San Diego. It's time for KPBS Roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. After historically long and difficult deployment, the USS Lincoln is back in its home port of San Diego. We hear more about what the ship's sailors and Marines experienced and the families that welcomed them home.

Ten months without seeing each other, giving birth without him. Just, you know, a lot of things without him. And then today finally is the day that he gets to meet his baby.

Then how lockdowns have exacerbated stifling heat for those incarcerated at Donovan State Prison. And we hear from the new voice gracing KPBS airwaves each weekday morning. It's coming up on KPBS Roundtable. Homecomings for sailors and soldiers are not an uncommon sight here in San Diego. But yesterday, the focus was on the USS Abraham Lincoln, which returned to port in San Diego after a taxing 322-day deployment to the Middle East. Thousands welcomed the sailors and Marines who served aboard the Lincoln, even including babies meeting their fathers for the first time. Kathy Monteirozzo was there to greet her husband.

10 months without seeing each other, giving birth without him. Just, you know, a lot of things without him. And then today finally is the day that he gets to meet his baby.

But aside from the emotional reunions, the arrival also brings with it a lot of questions about conditions aboard the ship and the health and well-being of its crew. I'm joined now by a pair of reporters who have been covering this story for months now. Priya Sridhar is a Pentagon reporter with MSNOW. Her reporting first shed a light on concerns aboard the Lincoln. Priya, welcome back to Roundtable.

Thanks so much for having me.

Great to have you here. Andrew Dyer also joins me here. He is KPBS's military and veterans affairs reporter. Andrew, thanks for being here.

Thank you.

So, Andrew, I know you've covered quite a number of these homecomings from ships after deployments, but yesterday seemed quite a bit different.

Yeah, considering we usually go and cover a carrier homecoming. It's usually a nice story. You know, you get these families and the kids, you get great visuals. And, you know, it's always something that we kind of try to go out and do. Usually it's, you know, your local stations that show up, most of them. But yesterday was a lot different. Yeah, there was, I don't know how many news outlets there and how many news cameras, but Um, everyone was there, I would just say everyone there, uh, national, local LA stations. It was a lot more than I've seen at any, any ship homecoming. Um, there was a lot more like, I mean, they had like media wranglers there in, in white Navy uniforms, uh, to make sure, uh, uh the press got on onto the base and all of that it was a much much bigger production than what we've seen at other even and then for the families there was like a whole kind of a carnival uh set up for for them which we also don't usually see at these

yeah and priya like