The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower may be one of the US Navy’s oldest aircraft carriers, but it is still fighting, despite repeated false claims by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The Houthis and online accounts supporting them have repeatedly accused the US of attacking or sinking the vessel in the Red Sea, as it leads the US response to a wave of attacks by the rebels targeting commercial vessels and warships in the vital waterway.

That put its leader, Capt. Christopher “Choudah” Hill, and his social media profiles squarely on what has become a peculiar frontline on the internet as the campaign continues. And while he’s ignoring his posts, they reflect a new level of information warfare the Navy is having to wage in its most intense war since World War II and as it tries to keep the morale of the nearly 5,000 personnel aboard the Eisenhower high and ammunition ready during their deployment.

“I think there have been two or three times in the last six months that we’ve been alleged to have sunk when we haven’t sunk,” Hill told The Associated Press during a recent tour of the carrier. “It’s almost laughable at this point. They’re probably trying to motivate themselves through misinformation, but it doesn’t work on us.”

The tour of the Eisenhower by the two AP reporters and others is part of efforts by the Navy to counter Houthi claims. During their stay on board for about a day and a half, the reporters traveled around the 1,092-foot (332-meter) length of the nuclear-powered ship under the supervision of sailors. The AP reporters also repeatedly circled the Eisenhower from the air in a Seahawk helicopter.

Aside from some rust on its sides caused by the Red Sea’s hot, humid air and water leaking from pipes in the dining room, the ship appeared undamaged. There was no explosion damage or large holes on its flight deck, just the stench of jet fuel, pooled puddles of oily water and the screech of engines before the F/A-18 fighter jets took off.

The other part of the information warfare effort is Hill himself, a native of Quincy, Massachusetts, which is immediately noticeable in his South Boston accent. While the Houthis’ secretive leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi has also named the carrier in speeches making false claims about the ship, Hill has consistently put out positive messages online about his sailors aboard the ship.

Videos of flight operations from the bridge and photos of sailors eating cookies in the captain’s chair are frequent main topics. After a false Houthi claim, Hill responded by posting photos of cinnamon rolls and muffins in the bakery on the Eisenhower ship – a subtle jab at the claims.

“The whole purpose of the social media outreach was to connect with the families, to bring them closer to the ship,” Hill said. “So if I can post pictures of sons and daughters, husbands and wives, or even fathers and mothers here, it brings the family closer to us. And again, it’s our support network. But it also played another role because everybody was seeing what we were doing.”

Then there are the “Star Wars” memes and pictures of Captain Demo, the Labrador-Golden Retriever mix who roams the ship as a support animal for the sailors. And as for Houthi forces tracking his postings, Hill takes particular pleasure in writing about “Taco Tuesday” on the ship.

“We’re going to celebrate ‘Taco Tuesday’ because it’s my favorite day of the week. It’ll never end,” the captain said. “If you want to call it an information warfare operation, you can. It’s just me, you know, at the end of the day.”

But morale remains a deep concern for Hill and other leaders aboard the ship. The Eisenhower and its sister ships have so far had only one short port call in Greece during the eight-month rotation. The carrier has been the most deployed carrier in the entire U.S. fleet over the past five years, according to an analysis by the U.S. Naval Institute News Service.

One sailor, Lt. Joseph Hirl of Raleigh, North Carolina, wore a patch that read: “Go Navy, beat the Houthis.” Though it was based on the classic call for the annual Army-Navy football game, the Navy flight officer stressed he knew the fight was extremely serious.

“Knowing that we’re getting shot at, the day-to-day stress definitely gives a reality to the whole experience that this is not a normal deployment,” Hiral said.

Meanwhile, ammunition also remains a concern. Navy Secretary Carlos del Toro told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee in May that the Navy has spent at least $1 billion on weapons to fight in the Red Sea. Every leader aboard the Eisenhower that the AP spoke to acknowledged that the Navy was trying to use the right weapon against the Houthis, whose asymmetric warfare requires them to use far cheaper weapons.

“My sailors, my ships are invaluable — that’s not a calculation I want any captain to make,” said Capt. David Wroe, the commodore overseeing the guided missile destroyers escorting the Eisenhower. “Now, using a weapon system with the proper effect on the proper threat, having more missiles, maintaining magazine depth, is certainly a relevant tactical question.”

For now, the Eisenhower is continuing its patrol with the USS Philippine Sea, a cruiser and two destroyers, the USS Gravely and the USS Mason. It has already been extended twice and there is always the possibility that it could happen again. But Hill said his sailors are ready to fight and he is ready to continue captaining in his own style.

“At some point in my career, I realized that what all human beings need is to be loved and respected,” Hill said. “So, as a leader, I shouldn’t be afraid to try to love and value everyone, and I should also expect the other leaders I’m responsible for to love and value their Sailors.”