Navy Secretary Reveals Eight Suicide Attempts Aboard USS Abraham Lincoln

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao revealed in a letter to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand that eight sailors assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide during a deployment supporting operations against Iran. While no deaths occurred, the attempts included multiple instances of personnel trying to jump overboard; one sailor was recovered by helicopter in August, and another was stopped by shipmates in March.

The strike group, comprising 6,000 to 7,000 sailors, set a modern record by spending over 300 days at sea, including a period of over six months without a port call. Crew members reported deteriorating conditions, including food rationing, sanitation failures involving toilets and hot water, and low morale driven by constant combat alerts. A U.S. military official described the number of attempts as incredibly high compared to the typical one or two per year.

President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth previously dismissed reports of grim conditions as misrepresented. Trump stated the deployment had not been nearly long enough, while Admiral Brad Cooper maintained the carrier had some of the lowest mental health-related cases among active carriers. Senator Gillibrand criticized the administration for dismissing the situation as fake news and failing to provide adequate care for service members.