Your Daily Four Star

Wednesday. Sailors on a carrier stuck at sea for nine months have reportedly started trying to go overboard. Also today: the Marines get two months to re-pick their religion, and 250 soldiers are cutting fire lines in Washington. Day 165 of the “4-week war.” Here’s what you need to know.

This is the human cost of an open-ended war, and it’s hard to read. The USS Abraham Lincoln left home in November on what was meant to be a seven-month deployment; nine months later, after five straight weeks of combat operations off Iran and only a single brief port call, multiple sailors have reportedly tried to go over the side, and families say others are barely holding on. One wife described her husband hauling a shipmate back onto the deck; another said hers messaged that he “hopes he doesn’t wake up tomorrow.” The Navy says it hasn’t identified any rise in suicidal ideation aboard. The relief carrier, the Theodore Roosevelt, is being readied — with no date attached. If you or someone you know is struggling, the Veterans Crisis Line is free, confidential, and available 24/7: dial 988 then press 1, or text 838255.

Marines now have until Sept. 30 to re-declare their faith from a list Hegseth’s Pentagon cut from more than 200 options down to 30, 21 of which are Christian denominations. Humanists, Unitarians, and a long tail of minority beliefs simply vanish into a catch-all “other religion” bucket, which matters because those codes are how chaplains plan services for the troops who hold them. The Pentagon calls it streamlining. But the practical effect is that a smaller and more Christian-shaped list of faiths is now what the military recognizes. A reminder that we’ve also covered how religious discrimination complaints no longer will be allowed to be made anonymously in the military. Hegseth’s vision for religion in the military is radically different than what existed when he walked in the door.

A reminder that our military aren’t just war fighters: about 250 soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord are on the line of the Modrite Fire in eastern Washington. That fire has burned nearly 58,000 acres since July. The soldiers are organized into hand crews cutting and holding firebreaks alongside civilian wildland crews. It’s one slice of a brutal season that’s seen more than 45,000 wildfires scorch 5.4 million acres and pulled in hundreds of Guard members too.

Pakistan’s defense minister said Tuesday the U.S. and Iran are “close to some sort of an arrangement” on the Strait of Hormuz, but a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday there are no talks with Washington on extending the ceasefire because Tehran sees “nothing to extend.” Meanwhile, both sides keep hardening their terms and trading demands for reparations. Trump insists the U.S. now “controls” the strait. Iran says it stays shut until its conditions are met. Six months in, 18 dead, and “close to some sort of arrangement” on a strait that was open before Trump started the war is considered progress.

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