WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- Eight sailors across the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group survived suicide attempts during its most recent Middle East deployment.
- Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said no sailors in the strike group died by suicide during the deployment.
- Families raised concerns about food shortages, declining morale, extended time without a scheduled port call and sailors potentially harming themselves.
- A sailor said some personnel could wait weeks for mental health care, while the carrier held approximately 5,000 sailors and Marines.
Editor’s note: This report contains discussion of suicide. Troops, veterans and family members experiencing suicidal thoughts can call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 and dial 1, text 838255 or visit VeteransCrisisLine.net.
Eight sailors assigned to ships in the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group survived suicide attempts during its most recent Middle East deployment, according to Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao.
Cao disclosed the figure in a Tuesday letter to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
The letter responded to her inquiry about conditions aboard the Nimitz class aircraft carrier as concerns mounted over sailors’ mental health.
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No sailors in the Lincoln carrier strike group died by suicide during the deployment, Cao said.
The eight attempts involved personnel serving across multiple elements of the strike group.
“Since the beginning of Lincoln’s deployment, there have been a total of eight suicide attempts across the strike group — this number includes the Lincoln crew and sailors from the carrier air wing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers and all embarked aviation squadrons,” the letter said.
Public concern intensified on Aug. 11, when Military Times reported that two sailors had attempted to jump overboard from the USS Abraham Lincoln.
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Cao’s letter provided details about separate incidents in March and August.
Cao confirmed that a sailor assigned to the air wing went overboard in August. The sailor was recovered, treated and medically evacuated from the ship to receive medical attention.
Another sailor attempted to jump overboard in March, but fellow sailors intervened before the sailor could cause personal harm, Cao said.
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That sailor underwent a medical evaluation and was flown from the ship for additional care.
Military family members raised grave concerns during an August town hall meeting in San Diego, California.
They spoke to defense officials about food shortages, declining morale and fears that their loved ones might harm themselves as the Lincoln approached nine months without a scheduled port call.
At the time, Navy officials said command information did not indicate a rise in reported suicidal thoughts or attempts.
“Based on information available to the command, we have not identified an increase in reported suicidal ideation or suicide attempts aboard the ship,” Navy officials said.
After the August reports, the Trump administration rejected the characterization of conditions surrounding the Lincoln’s extended deployment.
President Donald Trump told reporters that the deployment was “not nearly long enough,” while War Secretary Pete Hegseth said conditions aboard the carrier were “completely misrepresented.”
Gillibrand criticized those responses after receiving Cao’s letter.
“What Trump and Secretary Hegseth dismissed as ‘fake news’ turned out to be serious and deteriorating conditions for our service members,” Gillibrand said in a statement.
Cao told Gillibrand that mental health resources aboard the Lincoln included five chaplains, one embedded integrated prevention counselor, one psychologist and one clinical social worker.
The carrier also had three behavioral health technicians and one expeditionary facility dog.
Only the psychologist and social worker were licensed mental health clinicians.
A sailor aboard the Lincoln said the ship also carried a deployed resiliency counselor, another licensed mental health professional, for part of the deployment.
That counselor left six months into the deployment for personal reasons, according to the sailor.
When the Lincoln departed the U.S. Central Command theater and arrived in Thailand for a port call on Sept. 2, the Navy had not replaced the therapist.
The sailor said personnel who were not experiencing suicidal thoughts could wait weeks to see a mental health professional.
Approximately 5,000 sailors and Marines were aboard the Lincoln, according to the report.
Navy mental health professionals told Military Times that the delays were among several problems with the existing mental health system aboard aircraft carriers.
They said the system did not adequately meet sailors’ mental health needs during extended combat deployments.
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